"Friend" Me

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up that I'm probably not going to be able to update the blog right away when our baby boy arrives. It's going to be a lot easier to update Facebook (we can do that from Ryan's phone). So if you just have a need to be in the "know" then make sure you're "friends" with me on Facebook. Otherwise, it could be awhile before you see any pictures of our baby boy.

And just in case you were wondering....no contractions yet. It could still be awhile!

Heard Around My House Lately

McKenna: "Mommy remember, we don't peepee in our pants."



Me: "Thanks for the reminder McKenna."



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Christian runs over to Mckenna and taps on her shoulder and says "Honk, Honk."



McKenna yells "Christian, don't honk me. I'm not a honker."



I say "Christian, stop honking your sister."



Never dreamed I would actually be having conversations like this!



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McKenna: "Jesus made my baby doll, right?"



Me: "Well, Jesus makes people. And people make baby dolls."



McKenna: "I can't tell my baby that! It will make her sad."



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Christian: "I like the smell of toots."

What a boy!

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McKenna: "How long till my birthday starts again!"

Me: "It's going to be 362 more days until your birthday."

McKenna jumping up and down: "Yay!!! I love my birthday. I can't wait!"

Apparently numbers mean nothing to her at this point!

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Christian: "Daddy!!!!!!!!!!! Oh no!!!! My Capri Sun went in the toilet."

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So there you have it! Isn't my life entertaining???

I can't wait to add one more to the mix :)

We've already had some very interesting conversations about how babies are born.

I can just imagine the conversations we'll be having about nursing!!

My View

My view these days!! There always seems to be a hand rubbing my tummy :)

I read this quote today from Charles Spurgeon "with perseverance the snail reached the ark." Isn't that cute!?! That's how I feel about the last few weeks of pregnancy...I'll get there, but boy is it a long haul!

Full Term!!!! 37 Weeks!!!!!

This is an exciting day....I am finally considered full term (which just means this little guys lungs are mature enough to handle being born anytime now). Bring it on! I'm ready for this baby any day now!! Although I think I'm going to be waiting another 2 weeks, but I'm okay with that!! I go to an OBGYN practice that is made up of doctors and midwives! I love it. I love having both perspectives and the wisdom of medical professionals who have been trained differently. It makes for an interesting dynamic and gives me all kinds of options. I was especially looking forward to today's appointment with my favorite midwife (who also happens to be a friend from church...her husband is our music pastor). I prayed last night that she would give me sound advice and that her words would help to clarify what (if anything) I should do with this big baby boy of mine.

Well, guess what?? I'm still measuring a bit ahead, but nothing extraordinary. So we wait. I'm going to let this little boy come in his own time (now all that could change after my ultrasound next Wednesday, but that's the plan for now). I'm 2 cm dilated (which is one more than last week) and the baby's head is engaged. He's facing up instead of down, but McKenna did the exact same thing and flipped herself over at the last minute. I'm feeling great; other than being tired with constant heartburn and a complete lack of sleep :)

Every day I wake up thinking "This could be the day. I'd better clean up the house and empty the dishwasher." My goal for this weekend is to get my hospital bag packed!! I just love being in the home stretch and I'm starting to dream about holding this sweet boy and I'm also dreaming about sleeping on my stomach...oh I can't wait!!

(BEFORE)

I know I've kept you waiting, so I'm going to give you a sneak peek of our sweet boy's nursery. The picture above is a BEFORE picture. I took this picture the night we first looked at our new house....so that's not even our furniture. The above room became McKenna's room for a short time and we kept the yellow until recently.

(AFTER)

And this is what it looks like now! I'm not showing you the entire room because that would reveal our little boy's name and you're just going to have to wait on that announcement :) Truthfully we still don't even have a middle name. I hope we have a decision by the time he's born or things could get interesting.

The walls are now a light grey color and most of the accents in the room are navy blue. The drapes are navy blue and I painted a navy square on the wall and then put up that decal that says "Little Engines can do Big Things." The room obviously has a train theme to it. I figured we might as well go with trains since we pretty much already had everything. I reused the bedding that was Christian's when he was a baby and this is the third time around for all of the furniture. I'll post more pictures after the arrival of Baby Chatt. For now, that's just going to have to do!

Fun with just my two!

McKenna had never been to Chuck E. Cheeses...until today, that is!!
She started out feeling a little nervous about anything that moved.

And she ended up LOVING it!

We had no reason to go, other than the fact that we really needed a change in our routine. We just had to get out of the house and smile about something (and I had a coupon!)!

Christian was amazing! He didn't leave McKenna's side. He helped her climb up into rides and picked her up to get her out of them. And he thanked me three different times for taking him there. Wow! I almost cried because his attitude was so great.

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There was one little boy who was yelling at his grandma about how he didn't like any of the prizes that he could get with his tickets. And he was demanding that she take him to the dollar store so he could get a prize. Oh my! My first reaction was to get my kids away from him because I saw both of my kids checking out the situation, but later when we got in the car Christian asked me if I heard that "bad" boy. He told me that he thought that boy should get a spank and never go back to Chuck E. Cheeses again. It was the perfect teachable moment, as I gently reminded Christian that he has moments when his words are mean and his heart is greedy too and that it's important to always think about how our words sound to other people. It's easy to point fingers, but a lot harder to see our own faults.

It was a great three hours of fun! Such a special memory with just my oldest two!!! That's probably one of the last things the three of us will do together without their brother.

Hate this....

Today I've been battling the insurance company.
And this little boy is going to be expensive.
There is no getting around it.
Co-pay and deductibles are not fun.
And I know it would be way more expensive with no insurance, but still this is stressful.
Come on BCBS....don't make me call you about each and every doctor's appt. I have!!!!


And my OB doctor decided to go on vacation at the end of next week. Really???
Oh my word...STRESS!
So now I'm going to have to deal with a doctor(s) that is not my favorite.
I know it's not the end of the world, but you know...I'm nine months pregnant and at this point I'm probably going to have a meltdown and overreact about such things.

Okay, that's the end of my venting.
We really did have a fabulous day today.
A happy post is coming right up!

Wordless Wednesday!

Thankful

Ryan had the day off today. It's rare for him to have a day off. He doesn't always get the holidays off that everyone else has off. And what did I do?? I handed him a "honey-do" list. I'm sure he was thrilled. Most of the stuff on the list was minor, like "Water the plant on top of the kitchen cabinets." That's something I usually do, but can't do at this point. He didn't bat an eye. He did it all. And he watched the kids tonight so I could spend some time with some sweet friends who just wanted to encourage me in these last few very long weeks of pregnancy. I got to relax and laugh while he was dealing with dishes and dinner and bedtime. So tonight I'm heading to bed feeling very blessed. God has given me such a treasure in Ryan and I am so very grateful. I thank God daily for my marriage and for this partner that God created so perfectly for me!

Guy Time

On Saturday, Christian and Ryan went over to Mr. Steve's farm! They took Christian's four wheeler so Christian could ride around in some wide opened fields. Mr. Steve also let Ryan borrow one of his big four wheelers.
They had the best time riding trails through the woods and doing lots of dangerous things that Christian's mommy may not have approved of :)

Do you see how big that 4 wheeler is? It's almost as tall as Christian.

So glad these two got to have some guy time.

My Cutie

My Pregnant Bloggy Buddies

You know what's been kind-of fun this pregnancy????



Having bloggy friends that are pregnant too!! It's fun to share the experience with someone, even if it's just through their blog posts.



When I was pregnant with Christian my sister and two sister-in-laws were pregnant at the same time. That was fun! I loved having babies with them and sharing all of our newborn experiences.



So I've enjoyed having other baby mommas to share the experience with like;

Jenn , Kelly, Julie and Karen.

I wanted to especially share Karen's blog with you! She's going to have a precious little girl named Gracie on March 4th. Gracie is not expected to live unless there is a divine intervention from the Lord. Would you join me in praying for Gracie's family over the next month?

It's that time of year again.....

to start shopping for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes!!!

Boy oh boy did I score at Target today!! All their Valentine stuff was 75% off and they had whole packs of silly bands for $0.49. And cute little tins with card games and bouncy balls and all sorts of cute things.

I love shopping the after holiday sales for items for our shoeboxes. I can always get a better deal at after holiday sales than I do at the Dollar Store.

So we have started to once again fill our "poor box." Not a name that I would pick but the name Christian came up with for the box that holds all of our special things that we buy for the kids who will receive our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I guess it's an appropriate name, just seems a little harsh and slightly embarrassing when we're standing in the store and McKenna exclaims "Oh mommy, this is cute. Let's get it for the poor box, for the kids with no toys." Yeah, that sort of makes me cringe. I tried to change the name to the "giving box" but it didn't stick, so the "poor box" it is!

It's so fun to work on it all year long. I know one family that fills a shoebox every month of the year, so that by the time November rolls around they have 12 boxes already ready to go! What a fabulous idea. I think the tough part is the shipping. It costs $7.00 to ship each box and if you wait until November to save that money up, it's really quite a chunk, so I'm trying to think through that a little and maybe make it our goal to have a yard sale and use that money to ship our shoeboxes or something like that. I think the shipping sometimes holds me back from packing as many boxes as I could and this year I've decided not to let that stop us from filling as many boxes as possible.

Okay, so I hope I got you thinking!!! Start shopping now!! It will be so much more meaningful to your kids if they are constantly on the look out for fun little deals for their own "poor box."

36 Weeks

36 Weeks
Measuring 38 weeks (hey, at least it's not 39!!)
1 cm dilated :)
The wait continues!!!


Little man decided not to cooperate for his non-stress test this morning.
It should have only taken 20 minutes.
He decided to sleep for a solid 45 minutes with no movement.
The doctor didn't like that.
So I had a little sugar and a little caffeine and he decided to move around a little bit.
Whew.....so we avoided a trip to the hospital for more monitoring!!!
I've got to pay a little more attention to him and make sure he's kicking like he should.
Not easy when you've got a ton of other "more pressing" things going on around you.

Very thankful for President's Day :)
It means a 3 day weekend for Ryan.
I just about cried when he told me I was so happy!!!

Another gorgeous day.
Another picnic lunch on the porch.
Christian has a buddy over.
McKenna's about to take a nap!
Happy Friday!

Spring??

I made up a new rule, just for today.....

"If you come inside, you have to take a nap!"

So everyone has been staying outside. I needed a little space from them and they just needed to be messy and loud.

Win. Win, for everyone.

They've been messy with mud and sidewalk chalk and cupcakes. My house has been fairly quiet.

I've got the windows open so I can hear them and I've been getting so much done!!

The Lord knew I needed this day of 60 degree weather.

Remembering

I remembered the sweetest thing tonight and I don't think I've ever talked about it or blogged about it and I decided that I'd better do that or one day I won't remember anymore.



It was February 2008. McKenna was just a week away from being born. Christian was my precious only child, although Abby and Nathan were spending their days with us, so it was rare for him to have an "only child" moment. I remember feeling sad that he would never remember what it was like to have my undivided attention. I felt sad for him that he was going to have share me with yet another person (and a very demanding one at that). I felt guilty that I hadn't really prepared him much for the arrival of a sister. We talked about it and read a few books but that was about it.



So I decided to take Christian on a date. Just mommy and Christian! I think that's the only time in his life that he's had a date with just me. We went out to lunch at a real restaurant with a real waitress. We ordered lunch and colored pictures and I remember opening a pack of M&Ms while we waited for our food. We practiced his colors and categorized them according to color and I just enjoyed his company. I let him eat all the M&Ms before his lunch came. It was the best, to just sit there with my little 2 1/2 year old man and look him in the eye without any other distractions. I am certain that he does not remember that day, but I do. It's one of my sweetest memories.



Now I realize that the best thing that ever happened to Christian was his sister. All that guilty and worry was nonesense, although I have a feeling most hormonal moms-to-be have similar thoughts. Christian loves McKenna to pieces and his life would be so lonely (and peaceful) without her. They are best friends and I'm so thankful that the Lord gave Christian a sister.


This time around we are much more prepared emotionally and physically for this baby brother. Christian has asked a ton of ummm....very interesting questions. He pretty much understands what it takes to have a baby. He knows that you can have a baby two different ways and I worry every time I drop him off at preschool that he's going to share his knowledge with his friends. Thankfully at this point he's content with the understanding that it's God who puts a baby inside mommies and that it's one of God's best miracles!



Christian genuinely thinks that he is going to be taking care of this baby. I told him that I'm going to keep one of the bouncy seats in the bathroom so that I can keep an eye on the baby when I take a shower and he thought that was just silly since he will be babysitting whenever I need to take a shower. I do think that Christian's main job is going to be protecting his little brother from his little sister. We are really going to have to make some rules for McKenna because she thinks she's going to be changing diapers and feeding this kid every time he cries.

The Home Stretch

When I was pregnant with Christian I was still teaching 5th grade. I had enough sick days to take off work the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy. I remember those three weeks well. I loved them. I sat on the couch all day and pretty much read a book a day. I took naps and watched mindless tv. I remember the sun shining in the windows and the warm breeze blowing the curtains (it was June). It was so peaceful and restful.

The weeks leading up to McKenna's birth were probably some of the least restful of my life. I felt miserable and at that time we were trying to transition Abby and Nate into partime daycare. It was not going well (poor Nate had the worst time). The day I went into labor with McKenna I went and picked up Abby and Nate from daycare at lunch time, then brought them home, fed them and put Abby, Christian & Nate down for naps. Then I called Ryan at work and told him I wasn't waking anyone up until he got home. Ha! I just couldn't handle it anymore (I probably would have been a little more mentally stable if I had actually recognized the fact that I was in labor :)

My life is a little less stressful these days, but there is still never a dull moment. Today McKenna got water inside the DVD player (I know, what in the world?), she smeared yogurt all over Christian's legos and she climbed the shelves of the bookcase (which is not bolted into the wall and oh! my! word!!! we have got to do that) to get something off the top shelf. She told me daddy was going to put me in time-out because I wouldn't let her have a cupcake. She hid under the dining room table eating snacks after I had just told her she could NOT have a snack. She's a fun one!

And she is so excited to have a baby brother!!
She's been practicing her "baby skills" for weeks and weeks now. She asks me everyday if it's time for her brother to come out and play.

Today I installed the baby car seat in my car and yesterday I got the bassinet (that's held Emma, Abby, Christian, Nathan and McKenna so far) washed and ready to go. Bring on the contractions!!! We are ready to go! Oh wait....we still have a few more weeks.
I'm officially moving into survival mode at this point.

Hope you have a HAPPY Heart today!!

I hope you're having a Happy Valentine's Day!!

It's sort of funny to me that this day is a much bigger deal now that I have kids.

I really used to not care so much about Valentine's Day, but this year we've been making a BIG deal out of it. We actually been focused on it for 14 days now! As a family we've been memorizing parts of 1 Corinthians 13 and at the beginning of the month the kids and I made mailboxes. Those mailboxes have been hanging in their rooms all month and first thing in the morning they've been checking them to see what's in there. Some days it's just been a picture with a note that says "Mommy loves you." One day is was a collage of pictures showing all the people who love them. Some days it's been a scripture verse about God's love for them. And every now and then it's been a Hershey Kiss or a matchbox car. We wanted to be intentional this month in making sure their "love tanks" were full and that they felt very loved and secure going into the next month and the huge transition we're about to make as we become a family of five. The kids have been sad that this is the last day for their "mailboxes" so I told them I would keep them and every now and then they might show up with some "mail" for them!! It's been fun!!

Christian got a lot of loot this morning at preschool and it blessed my heart when he got in the car and started dividing everything up. Anything with a princess or a cute animal on it went to McKenna. Anything chocolate went to mommy (score!!). And he kept all the boy stuff, stickers and pencils. My crazy kid doesn't like soda or candy (for the most part). Isn't that insane?? My sweet girl makes up for it. That's why we have to keep taking her to the dentist.

This afternoon we were off to the doctor for some check-ups (the kids not me). And both kids got shots. I asked Ryan ahead of time to meet me there and I think he was originally wondering why I couldn't handle it on my own. Then he got to see for himself just how Christian acts when he gets shots. He refused to walk afterward, which is exactly what I was expecting and this super pregnant mom was very thankful dad was there to carry Christian out to the car. Plus, daddy, two nurses and mommy all had to hold the boy down for his shots! He's pretty serious when he says he doesn't want a shot. We are so thankful that everyone had a great check-up and they are healthy and right on track with everything!! Now we just have to recover from our shots :)

Hope your Valentine's Day has been happy and full of lots of LOVE!!!

P.S. Just had to include this story:
At one point today I couldn't find McKenna. So I called her name and she popped up from behind the couch and says; "Hi Mom, I wasn't eating any of Christian's candy." Hmmm....sounds suspicious to me. So I asked her what was under the couch. I had to ask her three times and finally she reached under the couch and pulled out a lollipop. Lying is a good thing to be terrible at, if you ask me!!! It is definitely not one of her strengths!!

Great day!!!

We'll start off with a useless piece of trivia for you: Christian no longer owns a pair of jeans without a hole in the knee. Every single pair of jeans (he started the school year with 8 pairs of jeans) now sports a huge hole. Ryan asked me if I was going to sew them. ha! We've been together for 10 years, when has he ever seen me sew anything?? The above picture is what Christian does all the time and that would explain the jean issue!

Baby doctor appointment this morning was great!! Little man is still measuring ahead, but not quite as far ahead!!! Only 2 weeks ahead this time and the doctor actually said "well, he's not that huge! I think you'll be able to delivery him." Whew...nice to hear that he's not huge from a medical professional :) So we pushed back my next ultrasound and moved a few appointments around and if I were guessing I would say we're going to have a baby about a month from now. Christian is dying to know a date. He keeps asking me how many more days until the baby comes and now I can finally give him a more concrete idea. Poor guy...he's such a planner!!!

Some prayers were answered on behalf of our family this morning! Still a long road ahead, but God is faithful!



My mom watched McKenna this morning while I was at the doctor and she did some laundry! Oh my, I love that. She's so good to me!!!


That's all for now. McKenna's been in the bathroom the entire time I've been typing this and I can hear water running, so it's probably time for me to go :) What on earth is she doing in there??

McKenna's party

She's THREE!!!

Stats about McKenna at age 3:

• Goes by "Kenna" or "KenKen"
• Sings A.L.L. T.H.E. T.I.M.E!!!!!!!
• Goes to bed every night and "reads" books for at least 30 minutes all by herself.
• Plays very well independently.
• Loves her Leapster and her "DS" which is actually just a Leapstart computer.
• Talks A LOT!!!
• Loves to go to church & wishes she could go to school.
• Plays with her imaginary friends names "Abby" and "Molly" all the time.
• Loves playing with baby dolls.
• Likes to talk on the phone.
• Still has her binkie at night time (that is all her mommy's fault).
• Has been very, very healthy this past year (no ear infections).
• Can quote Genesis 1:1, John 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 13:4 all by herself with no help :)
• Can count to 20 perfectly and a little bit higher, but then she starts skipping numbers.
• Knows most of her colors (not yellow and go figure...she mixes up white & black).
• Takes a 2 hour nap every day.
• Has lots of tummy problems that have made potty training a traumatic experience :(
• Just figured out how to work the DVD player. She loves picking a DVD and pressing "the triangle" to play the movie.
• Always takes her shoes off as soon as she gets in the car.
• Sleeps in a big girl bed.
• No longer likes having a booster seat or "baby" utensils.
• Thinks playdough is the best thing on earth.
• Only likes to play in the snow for about 2 minutes.
• Is very excited to be a big sister. She has BIG plans for all the things she's going to do with her baby brother.

7:30am on February 9, 2011....

A big hug for Christian to thank him for her new pink kitchen (he wanted to be the one to give it to her),

Christian was so excited to help McKenna have a happy birthday.

Dancing with her birthday balloon. She loves to dance around and sing "If you're happy and you know it."

She got lots of kitchen stuff from her Grandmom & PopPop. Her favorite thing was the coffee pot so she can make coffee for daddy.

I love the look on her face, peeking into that gift bag.

She been wanting a sleeping bag for a long time. She can't wait for her cousins to come for a visit so she can try it out.

We got out the good china for our sweet girl!

Christian loves it when we eat in the dining room. They know it's special to use the fancy glasses and fancy plates.

A princess party for our little princess.

I did not get very good pictures of the cake. Oh well. It was pink with a princess and that's all McKenna cared about.

McKenna still hasn't figured out how to blow out a candle. Daddy finally blew it out. Grandmom was a little horrified that McKenna was spitting on the cake. Ha! We all ate it anyway.

This girl loves icing!

The end! It was a fabulous day, perfectly fitting for our fabulous girl.