Pretty, pretty princess

This is what happens when you have older sisters who have a box of dress-up clothes that they have outgrown & have become tired of dressing up dolls...

In their defense, he was a very willing participant. I believe he had several different looks and this was just one of them.

Countdown!

As of today, I am at 32 weeks...what that means in pregnancy terms is that in 4 weeks, baby will be grown enough to be ready to deliver. Full-term is actually 40 weeks, but I have yet to hit a due date so we'll see how close I actually get to November 20th. Between those weeks, baby just puts on more weight.

So, I haven't had much to blog about since my to-do list has decreased quite a bit. With Jason being pretty busy, and adding a growing belly, I have submitted to enjoying my one-on-one time with Ian before baby arrives and just plain taking it easy for once & trying to embrace the end of the pregnancy. So far, my body has been feeling pretty good & just a few bouts of backaches and such, which usually stem from me having a busy day. So I've learned to give this older pregnant body a break so that I don't feel so terrible at the end of the day. Plus, Ian likes it when I'm not busy doing so many things and I just play catch and basketball with him. He's also been practicing being a big brother. I don't think this one will have any trouble getting held enough with 4 older siblings!

Happy Birthday, Faith!

Can you believe she's 6?! Here's birthday wishes to my little Faithy who is sporting a 3-hole toothless smile along with her "mesmerizing" colored eyes and who arrived home from school today exclaiming, "The birthday girl's in the hou-se!"

She wanted a Hello Kitty cake and gave herself bunny ears for the picture.

Bedtime story

So last night, Jason was reading a story to the kids & it was one of Laney's books from the school library. It was a Veggie Tales book about a character named Petunia. So he's reading along & Laney stops him to let him know he read a word wrong. Now, I'm not blogging this to make Jason feel dumb, he laughed at it for quite a while & I just thought it was really cute that Laney caught him in the midst of the story to let him know she was paying attention.

He was telling a story about a golden spah-toola...Laney kindly told him that it was a golden spatula.

Blogging fears

I've been fearful to blog this milestone thinking that doing so might jinx it, but after 2 weeks, I think I am safe...(famous last words.) We put the kids all into one room to make room for baby and to do so we put two sets of bunkbeds in their room. So, for the past two weeks, Ian has been sleeping in a "big boy" bed. He slept his first night in there all night long & to my surprise, he even napped well the next day. He goes to bed well on both occasions and seems to really like it. I can't tell you the relief! It was not an easy transition always for the other kids and I can't tell you how much I appreciate being able to sleep knowing that he stays in bed! Our biggest test will be after we travel away for a couple of weekends in a row & if he goes back to sleeping in it through the night when we get back. Maybe I should have waited until those weekends to post this...

Much overdue

I think I've been ready to tackle the toy room for some time now, so now that the kids are in school, I've spent the last 2 days going through that room as well as the 2 drawers that have accumulated stuff over the last few years. From what was an overwhelming, overflowing toy area, it has now been reduced to something that's manageable and more inviting to play in.

I hauled out 2 large bags of garbage, 4 bags of toys (one being just stuffed animals) and a diaper box full of paper to recycle. Not to mention I found lots of missing pieces to several toys and the fact that I don't think I'll have to buy pens, pencils, crayons or markers for quite a time. I can't believe all of those school boxes full of stuff!

It feels great to have it done...at least mentally...my back firmly disagrees to feel good right now. Time for some R & R and prep for the weekend with everyone at home again. It won't stay clean for long, but at least I know I got rid of some stuff.

First day of school!

Well it's the first day of school for A.J., Laney & Faith. First day of all-day, every day school for Faith and Jason's first day of school as the new principal.

To say I was excited for school to start might be an understatement. What comes to mind is the scene from "The Rookie" with Dennis Quaid when their team wins a very important game and they are all celebrating in the locker room with this song blasting...if you check it out, you can imagine how I am feeling on the inside, but this pregnant body will not allow me to participate in such an activity, so for now I'll just go about my day (a little more relaxed for now) and embrace the time to absorb some books and catch up on some more nesting activities.

Ian saying "good-bye" and watching everyone leave.

I wasn't the only excited one...they couldn't wait for the clock to get to the time when they could leave & then waiting to cross the street seemed like a lifetime!