Irony. . .

We bought a new camera, because I was panicked about the idea of not having one this close to my due date with Alyssa. Then a couple of days ago I was cleaning out my car (which I had done multiple times to look for my camera), and there was my camera under an umbrella. Great, now what?! I guess this means lots of pictures at the hospital!

Here's our update. I was dilated 1 1/2 cm at my appointment last week. HURRAY! That is more than I've ever done, and to be there at 37 1/2 weeks was amazing to me. I have another appointment today, so we'll see if there has been any progress. Randy was supposed to fly a 10 hour mission today, and I just had so much anxiety about it! The idea of me not being able to get a hold of him for 15 hours was just a little much for me. So he got off the mission. I know nothing is going to happen today, but I still feel much better now!

Kate asks daily if today is the day that Alyssa is coming. Our house is all ready to go. I have her bassinet set up in my room, baby swings up, bouncy seat out, everything washed and clean. Now we just need the baby to decide to come! Kate can be found just about at any given time with a stack of paper, markers, glitter glue, scissors, stapler, and a hole punch. She is content for HOURS with her art projects.

Luke seems to have picked up the art bug as well. He is VERY into drawing these days. Amazingly, for a two and a half year old, his pictures are very clear! He draws snowmen, tootles (from Mickey Mouse clubhouse), and smiley faces VERY well. I am amazed with what new pictures he comes up with. Right now he is sitting next to me coloring on my iPhone (with a drawing app, not really drawing ON my phone). My kids are definitely little techies. If they get a hold of either of our phones, they know how to turn on movies, how to find the drawing apps, how to start a game. . . Needless to say, mine has to be put away, or Luke would spend his day watching movies on my phone. That's education for ya!

Hopefully today's doctor's appointment will bring good news! Since my sister Sarah had her baby yesterday, I'm ready to go! I keep telling Alyssa that her cousin Tessa decided to come, so now it's her turn! I'm sure she won't come until April 20th, which is my "no later than date" from my doctor. We'll see if he sticks to that same date at my appointment today.

SO FRUSTRATING!

I'm really upset right now. . . I can't find my camera! I'm freaking out for two reasons: I can't stand the idea of being this close to having a baby and not having a camera! Plus, there were lots of pictures on it that needed to be put on my computer still (the danger of having a big memory card). So I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've just been getting things ready for Alyssa to come (our room looks more like a baby nursery than a master bedroom). We moved Luke out of his crib into a twin sized bed. He's doing really well with it. It was rough for the first couple of days, but he seems to be very adjusted now. We moved the crib into Kate's room (I'm not ready to give up my upstairs playroom yet-- it sounds ridiculous to have them sharing a room when we have an extra bedroom upstairs, but she'll be in a bassinet in our room for a few months still.)

So that's it for us! I'm on weekly doctor's appointments now. My doctor is going to start checking me at my next one. My next-door-neighbor is due four days before me. We go to the same doctor; he already checked her, and she's dilated to 1cm. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it would be nice if I was, too!!! I SO hope I'll go into labor. I know that I'll at least have her by April 20th (that's the very last day he'll let me go before getting induced). So there's at least some sort of light at the end of the tunnel!!! I'm actually feeling remarkably well. No complaints! I just wish I could sleep through the night. I keep waking up for like 2 hours at a time each night.

I'll at least post again after my next appointment (Wednesday) if there is any progress.

Kate's Birthday

We had SO much fun at Kate's birthday party. I was absolutely worn out after our two days of celebration, but it was well worth it. She is STILL talking about her birthday party, now a week later.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, which is a good thing. Alyssa has dropped at least four inches. I started noticing something was funny when all of a sudden my pants didn't fit. I thought that was odd, but just put on a different pair of pants (I chalked it up to too many Super Bowl snacks!). Then I went to rest my hands on my belly, right on top of her bum, and it wasn't there anymore! I started pushing around, and noticed that it was almost even with my belly button!!! Randy thought I was crazy. Then when he went to give me a hug this morning, he realized that my belly was very differently shaped than it had been. Hmm, guess I'm not crazy after all! We'll have to see what the doctor has to say tomorrow! I'm headed to Arizona all week next week for a grown up week by myself! Randy is taking the week off work and staying home with Kate and Luke. This baby needs to stay in for a while longer. I know she isn't ready to come out yet!



Here's my future Elder Todd. He looks so cute with his new haircut. He looks like a little missionary!


We celebrated Kate's birthday as a family on the day before for Family Home Evening. She requested fancy macaroni and cheese and roasted broccoli for her birthday dinner. She ate more broccoli than pasta, which obviously I wasn't complaining about.


Her new dress from Grandma Thomason. She loves it!


What was Luke doing while Sissy was opening up all of her boring girl birthday presents? He was reading books. When he realized there wasn't going to be much he would care about, he was gone. All boy!



Kate is in love with her singing birthday card that Grandma Thomason sent to her. It has "disappeared" for a while, because I was done hearing it. Noisy toys don't bother me much, but I heard that one a lot. I'm sure it will resurface again soon and Kate will be thrilled.

Luke went to work right away putting together a puzzle that Kate got.



Here's Kate in her birthday princess skirt. It is the most gigantic, pouffy thing, but it is SO cute on her!!!


This is our pink castle cake that had to have pink sprinkles and pink candles. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to. . . but she LOVED it, so that's what matters! It was the last thing I did to get ready for the party, and I was already beat my the time I started frosting it. Oh well!


The girls all made princess hats and princess necklaces at the party. Here's my cute birthday girl!


Kate loved opening presents two days in a row. What a fun birthday!

I'm not dead. . . just nesting!

Randy has been laughing at me because I'm "nesting" right now. We got iPhones for Christmas, so I'm RARELY at the computer, thus the lack of posting on my blog!!!! I check my e-mail on my phone when I have two seconds, then respond to important things (most of the time; I've been much worse about replying to e-mails since I haven't been at the computer very much!). I've even been paying bills, etc. while I've been waiting for Kate at dance or gymnastics. It's been very handy to have! Plus, my kids LOVE watching movies on it. It's saved my life a couple of times when I'm on a long shopping trip with Luke and he is just done!

With all my "extra" time I've had, I've been gutting and reorganizing my whole house, getting ready for Alyssa to come! We have about 10 more weeks!! I always love when I hit the 30 week point (on this coming Sunday) because then I know I have in the single digits of weeks left!! For me, it may be more like 12 weeks instead of 10, but I'm being optismistic. I'm also determined that I'm going to go into labor this time, instead of having to be induced like I was with Kate and Luke!!! I guess we'll have to see!

We had a wonderful Christmas break. We had a quiet, peaceful Christmas at home. The kids had a great time not having many places we had to be. They loved just getting to hang out and play with their new toys!!! It was quite the shock to them when life started again, Dad had to go to work everyday, Kate had to go to school, etc.

We are looking forward to Kate's 4th birthday next week!!! I can't believe that she's already going to be 4! She started Sunbeams in primary this year and is SO cute. My neighbor across the street is the primary chorister, and she said Kate was absolutely adorable on Sunday, because she knew all of the songs and would just sing her heart out! She said that she kept pointing out to senior primary, "Look at this brand new Sunbeam! She is singing better than you guys are!!!" Kate was very proud of that!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas to get us caught back up a little. I hope everyone had a great Christmas break. We are enjoying a BEAUTIFUL day here. It's almost 70 degrees! I have five kids all day today, so I'm trying to survive the day!! I'll be ready to crash when their dad comes to get them at 5pm tonight! I'm enjoying Luke and Bradley sleeping at the same time right now!


This is in College Station (we went there for a visit and to go to the Houston temple the week before Christmas) at a Christmas lights place called Santa's Wonderland. It is a drive-through light display place. We were all in the back of Randy's parent's truck.


Our attempt at our nativity scene on Christmas Eve. Luke didn't want to leave his Joseph outfit on.


Our family picture in our Christmas pajamas. I am SO happy this turned out! We used the timer on the camera with it set on our sofa. Can you believe that everyone looked in the right spot and smiled at the same time?! What a miracle!!!



My cute Kate in her Christmas nightgown that I made her. I didn't get the elastic in the sleeves in time. She took it off Christmas morning while we were waiting for Luke to wake up and let me finish the sleeves.


My handsome little Lukey in his Christmas jamas. He LOVES Mickey, so he was thrilled to have even more Mickey jamas.


Kate and her new Nellie doll in their matching nightgowns that I made them. Kate LOVES Nellie and would take her everywhere with us if I would let her.


You can see how much she loves Nellie by how snuggled they are together! This is a little grainy because Randy took it with his phone. It's so cute to see them sleeping together like that!

What a crazy month!

This month has been so crazy, I haven't been on my blog in almost a month!!! We had a very fun Thanksgiving. Randy's parents, older sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, and younger sister all came to our house. We had a great time! The kids loved having everyone at our house, being able to keep a somewhat normal routine.

We are looking forward to a nice, quiet Christmas at home. Randy's squadron is on their GDF rotation (Global Deterrence Force), so we can't go anywhere more than 8 hours driving. We loved our quiet Christmas last year, and I know that it will be very relaxing again this year! Since I was released from my calling, I'm keeping myself busy with doctor's appointments, car pools, etc. and sewing doll clothes for Kate's new doll for Christmas! It will be a very busy month! I have my regular OB appointment this month, one more next month, then it's already time for me to start going every two weeks again! I thought that by Christmas time this year, I'd REALLY feel huge and pregnant. I'm feeling pretty big, but I don't think the reality has totally set in yet!

I am going to be making my blog private. Everyone that I'm aware of who reads my blog will be added to the list. If you don't get the invitation, let me know! I've just heard too many creepy things!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I'll get pictures up here sometime soon!

To my disappointment

Quite a few people have asked me when my half-marathon is, which is this Saturday. Last week I had to go see a neonatologist for my level II ultrasound. The baby looks great, everything is healthy and growing like it's supposed to. I just happened to mention off hand to him that I was running a half-marathon in a week and a half. He was NOT happy with that. He told me that I couldn't do it! He said that my body will start sending all of my blood to my leg muscles, instead of the baby. So, no more 13.1 miles for me! I'll have to do it at this time next year. It will just be tough then, because any time I run too hard when I'm nursing, I lose my milk. At least I've had something to keep me in shape during the beginning of this pregnancy! Hopefully I will lose my baby weight even faster than I did with Kate and Luke! So, there's an update for anyone who was wondering. The race is on hold for now. I will do it! Maybe I'll do a full marathon since I won't be pregnant! I'm sure I'll start with the half then work up from there!

Our Halloween and our new baby girl!

No, I didn't have my baby early, we just have ANOTHER new addition to our family. We had a very fun Halloween! Kate was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty (since the movie has newly come out, she was insistent that was what she would be), and Luke, well, he boycotted Halloween that morning. So he wore an orange shirt to be at least a little festive. We spent the whole morning helping out at Kate's school with their Fall Festival. Then we went trick or treating at 5pm (that's when base trick or treating starts, it was so nice to go so early!). For trick or treating, I was able to convince Luke to wear part of his turtle costume from last year (he was supposed to be a really cute lion this year, but he FREAKED out when I put the pants on him for the costume).


Here's Luke before his hair was done, but he's at least in his orange shirt. Kate was SO excited that she got to wear make-up to be Aurora.



Here's Kate at school waiting in line to start their parade.

We only got a few pictures with Luke in his "costume". It was WONDERFUL weather! It was about 80 degrees, sunny, and so comfortable!


Kate was getting annoyed that her hair kept sticking to her lip gloss. I told her to get used to it, that it happens all the time to Mom! Here's an inadvertent picture of my ever expanding baby belly, too! Luke didn't care at all about candy. He just wanted his cheddar bunnies.



Here's our new addition, Kathryn. Kate is the one that named her. She is the SWEETEST little kitty I've ever seen. We got her on Saturday afternoon about 5 minutes before we had 5 extra kids come to our house. As of yet, she hasn't scratched ANYONE! Not even accidentally. She is so cuddly, but still very energetic.


She lets Kate play with her claws, push her around in the doll strollers (although, that doesn't usually last long, she'll just jump out), put her to sleep in the doll beds, etc. She is SO nice!


Kate got a line from the first Madagascar movie, where Gloria says that a critter is so cute, she wants to dunk it in her coffee. Well, all on her own, Kate came and told me on Saturday, "Mom, Kathryn is so cute, I could just dunk her in my coffee!" I got a good laugh at that, then told her that we don't drink coffee, but she could dunk her in her hot chocolate. Kate and Kathryn were very disappointed when they couldn't sleep together last night. Dad wants to make sure Kathryn doesn't have any potty accidents first, (which she hasn't, I love how cats are so good at potty training themselves!) then told Kate they could sleep together. We love our new little baby!!!