Emma's Big Month!

Emma is home from school today, due to a very icy morning, so we decided that it might be a good time for her to post something on my blog. I'll be typing but Emma will be dictating what I type. Make sure you post comments to this one. Emma will be checking to see what everyone has to say. Here goes:
This Feb. will be so fun!
Reasons:
1. My mom is going to start teaching Sunday School.
2. I'm going to Whitetail Ski Resort with my friends Anessa and Emily. I'm going to go snow tubing.
3. This Monday is the 100th day of school. We're going to do fun activities all day long. I'm going to use macaroni noodles to cover an entire paper that has 100 squares on it.
4. Aunt Judy is going to have a baby soon.
5. My dad might come from Massachusetts.
6. Valentines Day is coming soon.
7. We were supposed to do fun stuff for Ground Hog Day today, but I guess we're going to have to do it on Monday.
8. My birthday is on February 7th. I'm going to be turning seven on the 7th.
9. On Monday I get to start going to before school daycare. It will be so much fun. I get to see Aunt Judy's neighbor Nicholas at daycare. I also get to eat breakfast there.

A Quick Baby Update!

I just thought I'd give everyone a quick baby update. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and Abby was thrilled that she got to go with me. Ryan drove the boys around in the car the whole time and took them to McDonald's for snacks so that no one would fall asleep and ruin their nap time. Anyway, Abby is becoming a pro at this whole doctor appointment thing. She knows all about blood pressure and she asks to get weighed everytime too. I was thrilled to find out that I haven't been gaining any weight and then completely demoralized to hear that I'm measuring even bigger than I was last week. That means this baby is still growing, which is good, but she could do me a favor and slow down a little. I'm measuring 39 weeks and I'm only 37. It's scaring me to death. So we made some decisions today. If I don't have the baby by Feb. 14th, I'm going to be induced. I feel comfortable with that decision, because I do not want a 10lb baby. I am going to be praying that I will go into labor on my own sometime over the next two weeks (Just not before Sunday...Emma's birthday party/Super Bowl party is at our house on Sunday. It's going to be a snow tubing party, so stay tuned for pictures of the big event. It starts at the ski slope and end at our house. She can hardly contain her excitement)! So please pray that this baby will make an appearance on her own in the next 14 days. I do have one huge answer to prayer. The baby has turned and is not facing up anymore, which will make her much easier to deliver. I know that she could still flip herself around a good bit, but hopefully she'll stay put and face the right direction. I'll keep you all posted. I just taught my sister, Amy, how to update my blog and how to add pictures, so hopefully she'll be able to keep everyone informed when the big event happens.

Abby's special date!

Abby spent the morning with her special friend Kate. Kate's mommy, Ms. Mandy, took the girls to a pottery shop. Each of the girls got to pick out something that they wanted to paint. Abby picked a monkey and Kate picked a little doggie. You'll notice their creations in the background of the first picture. You will also notice that, of course, Abby included the color pink. Abby could hardly contain her excitement as she looked forward to this special time with Kate. Apparently, the girls giggled and had a great time together. We are so thankful for the blessing of friends like Kate.

Potty Trouble....Updated

This is a picture of Christian smiling as he peeks out from behind the bathroom door. Trust me...he was the only one smiling in our house at that time. Christian was actually sitting on a stool watching daddy try to unclog the toilet.

You see, Christian and his side kick Abby got a bath toy out of the tub today. It was one of those rubber squirty fish that's just a little bigger than a golf ball. I'm not quite sure who's idea it was, but I think it was Christian who threw the fishy in the toilet and then flushed. The fish went down, but of course not all the way. Since Abby couldn't see the fish anymore she went ahead and used the potty and then flushed again. Thankfully there was no overflow on the floor, but she quickly came running to give me her version of what happen.

So Ryan tried unsuccessfully to fish the fishy out! I guess I'll be calling a plumber in the morning. I'm hoping this doesn't cost a fortune and that the fish is stuck somewhere in the toilet and not in a pipe in the house somewhere (oh that would be terrible).

THE UPDATE:
The plumber just left and he was able to fish the fish out of the toilet. He did have to unbolt the toilet from the floor and the whole thing took about half an hour, but we are now fish free. Thankfully I don't think that it's going to cost a fortune either. I did get a little more "truth" out of our culprits this morning. Christian was the one taking all the action (finding the fish, putting it in the potty and flushing) but Abby was instructing him the entire time. They are quite the team!

I love how uniquely God made each one of these children!
I love how Emma's nose is sprinkled with a dusting of freckles and how she shows so much expression in her face.
I love Christian's long, full eye lashes and how precious he looks when he's sleeping.
I love Nate's chocolate brown eyes that change to reflect his emotions.
I love Abby's tiny, button nose. Everything about this girl is petite and sweet.

The two year old tag team!!

Whenever there is an extended period of silence in my house it's usually not a good thing. Abby is smart enough it vacate the area when trouble is brewing and occasionally she clues me in on what's happening. Honestly, I think she enjoys watching it all go down, so she doesn't usually give me an immediate report. The boys, however, take action and worry about the consequences later. Lately they have become quite a team. On one hand, I'm happy that they are getting along and learning to play well with one another. On the other hand, it's exhausting and usually creates a lot more work for me.

I took this picture of the boys from the upstairs of our house, looking all the way down into the family room. They found a tub of baby boy stuff, that I had just gone through (I got out all the yellow stuff) and I was going to put the tub back in the crawl space. They managed to get it open and were having a grand time with all the baby bottles, blankets, clothes and toys. Everything was strewn everywhere. Every baby bottle had been in someones mouth. The tub quickly became a boat and then was flipped over so they could jump on it (that was a recipe for disaster). At least they're creative. The sad thing is that this in very minor compared to some of the disasters we've had. I normally don't have the presence of mind to snap a picture when it's something more major!

I know that some people wonder what a stay-at-home mom does all day. I know exactly how my day is spent....CLEANING UP!

5 Car seats!!!

Believe it or not we now have five car seats installed in my car. I guess if you want to be technical, it's four car seats and one booster seat (Abby just needs to gain a little more weight and she could join the booster seat category too). This weekend was the "get ready for baby" weekend!! My parents came to visit and we got out the bouncy seat, baby swing, infant car seat, etc. We cleaned up the stroller and my suitcase is officially packed. I've got most of the baby clothes washed and the kitchen is once again stocked with bottles. My mom has even written her substitute plans, so she can drop everything at a moments notice and come help. So in other words....WE ARE READY! I'm feeling so much better now that I've got everything in it's place. The only thing I need now is for my husband to quit traveling and stay put for the next month (He's in Massachusetts and Connecticut for a few days and this is something that has become rather common. I guess I should just be thankful he's within driving distance and that he didn't have to fly somewhere).

Unfortunately, I've got a terrible sore throat and my ears are killing me, so I guess I should probably go to the doctor. I know that there is very little they'll be able to do for me since I'm 9 months pregnant, but I need to get better quickly. Please pray that I get over this little bug and that none of the children catch it. Remarkably, all the kids are healthy right now and I hope it stays that way for months to come!!

An eventful evening!

Today we had our first big snow event of 2008! It basically snowed all day and we ended up with about four, very wet, thick inches. The three younger kids and I spent the morning running errands, then it was lunch time, then nap time, so we didn't actually get to play in the snow until this evening. When my sister got off work, she walked in the door of my house to four very excited kids already in their snowsuits. I handed her a pair of my ski pants and told her good luck!! So she headed out the backdoor with the bundled up kiddos and I headed out the front door for a doctor's appointment. The kids had a blast playing in the dark (we have two spotlights in the backyard, so it wasn't really that dark) in the snow.
Do you not love the look of delight on this little snow angel's face?
Nate is definitely a little monkey and a kangaroo sometimes too. He loves to climb and jump.

Ryan should like this picture, it almost looks like Christian's getting ready to "pitch" that snowball.
Emma going after the lady with the camera (her mom).
See how the snow was still coming down?!
One of the kids favorite things to do is actually sliding down the sliding board on our swing set with snow on it. You can really get some speed, especially with wet snow pants on! These kids also love swinging, no matter the weather!
Nate figuring out how to make a snowball.


The other part of our eventful evening had to do with my doctor's appointment. I'm one centimeter dilated (I was hoping for more, but that's okay. One down, nine more to go). The doctor actually sent me over to the hospital for some monitoring. I was not expecting this and quite honestly I didn't think it was all that necessary, but they insisted. So I headed to the hospital for heart rate monitoring for the baby and a non-stress test. I found out that I'm actually having a lot of contractions which is fine with me as long as I can't feel them. The baby is also in a rather unusual position, which is what got everyone all concerned. She's head down, but face up (it would be best if she would be face down before she's born). In other words, her back is against my back which makes it harder for them to get a good heart rate and it makes it harder for me to feel all her little movements. They sent me home after about an hour, much to my relief. Ryan has been traveling for work and he's about 5 hours away right now, so I have no desire to have this baby until he's home. Thankfully, all is well!