Vogue at 28wks pg

I am 29 wks pregnant today but here is a shot from last week. When I went in for my last checkup I was 27wks along and was measuring 31wks. Do I look big yet? ;)

This was the same day that Michaela took off down the sidewalk at church heading straight for the parking lot. I flipped my high heels off and ran full force after her. Yeah, that brought on the whole pubic symphysis discomfort on prematurely. I think I might waddle a bit more now too. LOL. But I did catch the fleeing child just in the nick of time. Is that impressive or what? I can be fast when I want, even in my round state.

Worth 1000 Words

In no particular order and apparently MUCH to big. I will fix it later. Until then, please enjoy clicking away. If anyone knows how I can fix the size without reposting all of these ALL OVER AGAIN..feel free to enlighten me. ;)


Michaela in our sunflower patch wearing a mumu Mimi got her in Nicaragua.
Olivia hamming it up after her Halloween children's choir concert.
Michaela and Maia playing in the couch cushions and wondering if they will get in trouble when Mom sees them.
Groovin' it up during the Monster Mash
Pre-trick or treating pic
This is how Michaela trick or treated this year.
24 w 5d on Halloween with O on her 7th bday
Trunk or Treating at the church
21 wks right before the gender ultrasound
O and the Muffin
The Grandgirls
Siblings
Girls Rule
Tempie and Savvy
Mimi and the Grandgirls

Determined to Create

Click this link first. Then come back and read. I have yet to figure out how to imbed the video itself onto my blog.

My friend, Kris, showed me this video a few weeks ago. I teared up when I first watched it. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Today, Sam and the girls are out on a Daddy/Daughter date. I am trying to put Christmas decorations up in our living room where the Christmas tree will be. I didn't do too much in that room last year because we went out of time for Christmas. This year, I want to do more in our first Christmas at home in this house. So I broke out all the stuff and I tried for a bit while I sang to our Christmas music. Then, I hit a wall. Then I broke out the apple pie from Thanksgiving and looked thru my Better Homes and Gardens magazine for inspiration. Then I got frustrated because I don't have the cash right now to go out and get a few more new lovely things. Then I looked on some blogs--most of them from people who have tapped into their creative side and make masterpieces all the time. That isn't me yet.

I have gotten better in some ways but I am not there there. Then I got determined. I always wonder if there is a trying to be creative, cash strapped blogger out there from whom I can draw inspiration. Then I said, I better just get everything out and do what I can with what I have got. Then I remembered this video that my sweet friend, Kris, showed me all those weeks ago. I got the urge to write. I knew that if I wrote about it, it would help me screw my determination to its sticking point and go back up there and give it another go. I cannot promise greatness if and when I ever post pictures of my decorations but I can promise that I did my best with what I had and that I am determined to get better as time goes by. Maybe this will be my year to get off my butt and really learn to sew. Until then, I will relish the fact that although I may not be great at creating lovely home decorscapes, that I am good at creating baby girls. That is most certainly worth alot of something.

Decorating for Christmas should be fun, not stressful, right?

I can't believe I just thought that!

This morning, Olivia and I were doing Math in homeschool. We were doing our addition unit review. I supplemented by doing addition flashcards regularly so that in addition (no pun intended) to learning how to add that she would also memorize those basic ones we encounter all the time.

Math has always been my least favorite subject in school. I have always struggled with it, especially if the concept was intangible to me. I always told myself I was not good at Math and that I didn't have a mathematical mind. As I got older, there are some areas of Math that I became confident in and loved, but to spend 4th grade thru 9th grade truly thinking you are a complete mathematical incompetent is crippling to one's academic sense of self. This is a mindset I have always tried to avoid passing along to my girlies.

So, when it has come to teaching Math to my girls, I have wanted to teach them in ways I wish I would have been taught and to make it tangible where possible. Fast forward to this morning, we were doing our unit review and teaching a new way to add. I thought it was a pretty cool method, very nice for the kinesthetic, visual and even auditory learners out there. It made me excited and in that moment of reckless fervor I had this thought.

I LOVE MATH!! *gasp* *disbelief* *confusion* *relief* Golly Gee, Mom has had a breakthru!
I like Math! Phew! Love it even. Nice ;) Math can be fun even when you are making out aren't doing viral titers in school (Be still my heart, I did love major and my job as a Medical Technologist) or learning fractions thru cooking (again another throbbing heartbeat).

Ok, ok,ok, let me stop wafting thru a field of poppies and acknowledge that I do understand that I am only teaching first grade Math. Just a couple days ago, a good friend of mine made the comment of not enjoying some aspects of 3rd grade Math. BUT this little breakthru of mine is building my mommy's muscles so I will be fit to meet that challenge when it comes in a couple years. Until then, (and maybe I should just whisper it but since I tend toward excitement and jumping up and down vs. reservedness--is that a word?) I LOVE MATH! Geez, did I really just say that?

Playing Catch Up

October was a full month. We found out that we are having another little girl and named her. Olivia turned 7. My belly got bigger. Olivia had her first children's choir recital and it was an unforgettably good entertainment. We hit a new roll with homeschool, we've worked hard and played hard. We LOVE it. My belly grew even more. I lost my keys. I got the MOST fabulous surprise ever when my mom and sister, Tempest showed up on my doorstep along with my most delicious niece, Savannah. I lost my check card. My mom, sister and I tried our hands at canning applesauce--quite the adventure. Olivia had an intimate birthday party with 17 of her closest friends. Sam decorated the coolest cupcakes for her party.

Then November flew in with Michaela's and my mom's birthday on the same day. I made copies of my lost keys and got a replacement check card. We took down the garden and annual flower beds. I planted lots of bulbs. My belly has grown even more and I am measuring 5 weeks larger than I am far along. I found the lost check card. I am learning alot about couponing and it is becoming a new obsession. Then we got snow. Lots of it, at least more than I thought we should the second week of November.

Tomorrow is Monday. I am taking all the girls in for their yearly checkups at the pediatrician. I haven't told them yet. Mainly because Olivia has taken to FREAKING out and worrying about whether or not she will get shots. This kid who once took shots like a champ is now the child you hear screaming HYSTERICALLY 3 examination room doors down in the ped's office. She even started running in circles away from the nurse when she walked to give her the antibiotic shot when she and I had strep this past spring. (I wasn't there but Sam tells a good story about this one.) I decided to just not tell her so she would have a decent night sleep's without obsessing over it.

I did slip up this morning and mentioned we were driving to Provo tomorrow. She brought it up about 10 minutes after I said it. We were getting ready for church when she asked about it so I pretended not to hear. THEN she mentioned it again at dinner and mused about how she hoped we weren't going to the doctor to get shots. So, while squashing inward smirks, Sam and I talked about our experiences with shots and recounted how suave and cool O used to be when it came to shots. We never really told her it was tomorrow, lest she endow us with a night of fitful, agitated sleep and nightmares.

Today, I am tired of being the Mom. I am grateful to be the Mom and there is nothing in this world that I want to do more but tonight I feel like the kid who is being forced to jump in the pool and dunk her head under the water before she is ready. Monday is coming and I just don't wanna do Monday. I don't want to keep us on track. I don't want to break the news about the doctor sometime during the drive.

I don't want to be the one to feed the girls every couple hours, only to hear the chorus of "I'm hungry" the second snack or breakfast time is over. I don't want to make the girls clean their bedroom or their bathroom, I don't want to keep Michaela from throwing dirt on the wall, from dipping play tea cups into the toilet and pouring poopy water on the floor or from dumping lavender scented hand sanitizer all over the carpet in the girls room or confiscate scissors from her hot little hands.

I don't want to send Maia to time out a bazillion times or tell her she can't wear summer skirts anymore (Yes I put them away but those stinking things have legs, I tell you!) or tell her that her shoes are on the wrong foot. I don't want to tell them to not squish or smear food all over the counters or to stay in their seat while they eat.

What do I want to do, you ask? Well, I want to be a Mom to my girls and your reply would be what, I ask? That's right, if I want to be a Mom then I asked for all this.

Ready or not, Monday, Here I come. Cannon Ball!!! *SPLASH!!*