The time is creeping closer for deciding on a baby boy name.

Wanna help?

Here are some of our favorites. My dad’s name is Stewart so I’d like to use that as a middle name. Samuel and Lyle are both family names. The rest are just names we I like. Our last name starts with a C.

Let’s have a vote, shall we.

I love where I live. There is a good mix of old and new, places to explore, access to the mountains and even lovely biking/walking trails throughout town.

My due date is creeping up pretty close and my comfort level is getting less and less. I’m having contractions but nothing regular. I do wondering sometimes if things are going to get going but then I’ll still wake up in the morning pregnant. Sigh. I’m trying to be as patient as I can for this baby but I admit it’s harder this time around. I just don’t know if I have it in me to go 2 weeks over again.

No, I do. I really do. I’m just being wimpy about it.

Leah and I have been spending a lot of time walking to the park in hopes that I can get things going sooner than later. It’s a bit of walk from home (2 miles round trip) and by the time we are back home, I’m completely worn out and sometimes regret the walk. My waddle isn’t very pretty these days.

For our next walk I’m a bit nervous though…

Jeremy took off Leah’s training wheels and of course, off she went. The thing is that I’m not sure how stable she is right now. I don’t think she’d be to happy to do a 2 mile loop by herself. I usually end up pulling her part of the way by hooking the dog leash on to the handle bars. It worked out nicely. But now I wont be able to do that. I certainly couldn’t run behind her and make sure she didn’t fall. Hum!? I guess our first trip out will have to be a shorter trial type one.

This pic is absolutely awful but it was the only good side shot I got of my courageous girl.

She was so happy about it all and loved going super fast. Way to go Leah!

Yesterday we were enjoying a nice warm Sunday afternoon with my family. We realized we had all of my parents grandkids together including baby Hannah, my little sister’s latest contribution so we took a few crazy shots of all the little stinkers.

With everyone snapping pictures, I finally managed to get a good snap shot of my belly.

I’ve always had pretty easy pregnancies but this time around I’m feeling older, less mobile, less energetic, and much more pain. The pain is mostly in my lower back and hips when I’ve had a busy day. Lots of standing, walking, cleaning, etc. I think I may fall apart one of these days. Sometimes when I lay down I think I’m going to never be able to get up and move again.

I’ve been going to the chiropractor for adjustments. My pelvis is always a little torqued so I think it helps the pain quite a bit but never makes it go away. My baby was breech for a while too but after a couple of adjustments he’s head down now. If you ever had a breech baby, I completely recommend trying the chiropractor. I didn’t know that when I had my first.

Now that I’m getting somewhat close to the end, I’ve thought about getting out the baby boy clothes to see what I have for this little guy, washing blankets and maybe, if he’s lucky even pulling out the crib. It’s so funny how baby #4 gets so little attention.

We have two birthday right in a row at our house in April. There are moments when I think I’m just going to kill over with all the planning and details but somehow I managed to survive. Remember how I don’t really like holidays, I don’t really like throwing birthday parties either.

What a party pooper I am. Maybe I’d feel more up for it if I wasn’t 35 weeks pregnant.

Isaac is 6 today. He’s been counting down for a while now. We celebrated over the weekend by having all of the neighborhood boys over for a little party. We had pizza and cupcakes are our house…

and then went to our favorite pool for some swim time. The boys had a great time. We gave them squirt guns for their party favors and I have to say they were such a HIT!!

Score one for the party pooper!

The guns keep the boys playing the whole time. Battles were going on everywhere. Even I got caught up in the line of fire game for a while.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not that big into holidays. I have to force myself to do the usual holiday festivities like doing Easter Baskets, purchasing a minimal amount of candy, hiding eggs and putting up any sort of decorations (oh, wait. I didn’t do that.) Am I the only one who struggles with this? It seems so many moms love holidays and look forward to them.

Luckily my poor kids are happy with whatever they get.

After much struggling, I decided to get the kids some Easter outfits. I debated between whipping up some skirts and a homemade tie but eventually just ran to the mall with a coupon in hand and bought somewhat coordinating outfits.

The girls loved their dresses and my boy hardly looked at his shirt.

Since I went to all theEr trouble of getting outfits, I wanted to have a little photo shoot with everyone fixed up nice on Easter morning before church. But that required getting ready for church before the appointed time for take off which I pretty much failed at.

I had about 3 minutes to capture some sweet Easter photos.

We tried the stairs.

That didn’t work.

Emma had a brilliant idea to stand behind the daffodils.

That didn’t work.

Emma wanted to rest her elbow on Leah’s head.

Then she was sad I said no and Isaac was busy showing off his new little toy.

Then of course there was the times no one would look at the camera.

So this is the best we got. Decent enough.

I sure love my cuties.

Happy Easter.

I have been thinking and thinking about needing to get a belly shot but for the life of me, I can’t seem to manage it. I have no idea but this poor baby will have no documentation of him growing inside of his momma.

The only picture I managed to dig up was from our San Fransisco trip and that was a month ago. It’s not even that great but the scenery is nice.

Here I am about 28 weeks.

My husband just came home and read my post, “Why don’t you take one right now?” Well, I’ll tell you. Ugly shirt, pony tail and no make up on.

That’s why. But I promise I’ll get one soon!

I drafted this post a while ago when I was feeling down. Now that the sun has been shinning, the tulips are popping up and things are looking better, I feel okay to post this.

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Lately it feels like I’ve been bombarded by disappointment.

I got my braces off.

And still have (slightly) crooked teeth on the bottom (can you tell from the pic?) and my bite just doesn’t feel right.

{Maybe we should be talking about my crows feet instead.}

Here’s the before braces shot. It’s an improvement for sure and I’m super happy to have straighter teeth.

It’s funny. No one has noticed that I’ve had them off. Maybe it’s because my top brackets were clear.

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I created some ugly art work.

I only hung it on the wall to take this picture. I have no plans on keeping it.

These big canvases aren’t cheap even with a 40% off.

I used this cool idea from pinterest. I repainted this stupid thing about 6 times to get it right and I still hate it. I don’t think I even like this graphic design anymore. It was surprising how hard it was to get the herringbone lines straight and even after all my efforts the lines aren’t straight not to mention the paint bleeding under the tape. I’m pretty sure I can’t live with it and am going to have to repaint is all over again with some other idea.

Poop.

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I made some anthropology inspired curtains.

And now I think they are too feminine for my house. I know the pic isn’t that good with the sun coming in but really, when I’m feeling this way I can hardly go take another picture.

I think they’d be much better suited for a little girls room. I don’t hate them but just a bit disappointed. I spent money on them. Because they are homemade I can hardly return them or start over. I think I’d be much happier with something more like this.

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I got some new highlights to brighten up this dreary winter.

And ended up with some ugly stripes, especially when I put my hair in a pony tail. Again, I’m in no mood to take a picture.

I even told the girl that I wanted the highlights to be subtle and didn’t want it to look striped. I’ve lived with it for months now. Would you dare go back and tell her to fix them?

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Tell me, how do you deal with disappointments? How do you keep positive and not let things drag you down?

Today I was working on taping up my board and batten wall. Lost track of time and when I looked out the window and saw the neighbor boy coming home from school I realized I’d forgotten to pick up the carpool at school. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 1:53! Emma and the kids get off at 1:10! I couldn’t believe they hadn’t called me but I’ve been having them walk down the road a little bit so I don’t have to deal with all the traffic at pick up. They probably didn’t want to walk back to the school.

I threw the littles in the car and started driving away when the other mom called me wondering where her kids were at. When I told her I’d forgot, she just laughed at me.

I found them walking home. They’d made it about a mile out of the 1.5 walk home. Of course when I picked them up they gave me the business. “We are so mad! What’s your excuse? I can’t believe you forgot us!”

I told I’d take them to get ice cream cones to make it up to them. I drove all the way to Arctic Circle and realized I didn’t have my purse because I had ran out in such a hurry.

I turned around (while listening to all their exclamations)  and drove back home and grabbed my purse.

I then drove back to Arctic Circle and ordered cones for all the kids. Got to the window and realized I didn’t have my wallet. It was sitting at home by my computer because I had been budgeting my remodeling receipts last night. The lady at the window laughed at me and I told her I’d have to come back.  I could barely believe it myself.

Drove back home (while listening to all their exclamations which were even more outragous) grabbed my wallet and drove back to get the ice cream cones.

Drove home in peace while everyone had ice cream in their mouths. I almost drove straight into our circle and forgot to drop the boys off until Emma said “The Boys!” I quickly corrected and finally dropped off the carpool.

Where is my brain today?

All this happened while I was bra-less, barefoot, hair in a mop top and sporting my hot pink Victoria secret pajama set.
Awesome.

We had an ultra sound this past weekend and everything looks great with our baby.

There was no doubt as to his gender. The sonographer joked that he’ll come out a boy unless his parts shrivel up or fall off somehow.

His little face was buried in my placenta so it was hard to get a good face shot. Here is his profile.

His little legs were swimming all over the place. It’s always fun to see them kick and feel them kick at the same time.

This little guy was frank breech. I know it’s not time to worry about having a breech baby yet (plenty of time to turn) but he’s my third baby in this position. I must like to cook them head up. I’m going to have to start thinking about doing pelvic tilt exercises (again) and visiting a chiropractor so he doesn’t get stuck head up like his biggest sister.

Fun stuff. We’ve got a little pattern going on here. Girl, boy, girl, boy.

This little video touched my heart. We’ve been doing the usual hustle and bustle over here so it’s good to have a little reminder about this wonderful holiday.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.