Nesting

I'm sure it's a bit early to nest, but it literally takes months to get ready for adding a new baby to our already busy household. James finds it very amusing and annoying at the same time (mostly because it means shopping LOL). We are planning to switch the boys' room and Allegra's room (she'll be sharing with Cecily) in February, and hopefully we'll get to prime at least one of the rooms for painting next weekend. Because I can't do much getting ready in the actual nursery until the painting is done I've focused on her other needs. We sold our bassinet at our garage sale last fall, so we knew we needed another one, but I just wasn't finding one that I liked. Then I saw a playard at Babies 'R Us that was in a beautiful brown and pink cherry blossom print with a bassinet attachment and changing table. How perfect is that - now we can use it as a bassinet in our room plus as a changing table (we used to just use the top of our dresser, but it's too tall for me anyways). We bought it last night, and I was so excited that I couldn't even wait for James to get home with the kids from Awana to assemble it, so I did it myself. I can't believe that our baby girl will be here in just over 100 days!

A Haircut for Colin

I finally broke down and cut my baby's hair this week. It's been getting out of control lately, so one afternoon out came the scissors, water bottle, and comb. I'm definitely not a professional and I wasn't overly ambitious (I still wanted to keep some length) so we went with a monk/Beatles bowl cut. At least I think its kind of cute LOL. Colin, being male, could care less.

Doctor's Appointment

On Tuesday was another doctor's appointment and ultrasound - we hit the 6 months mark this week! All of the sudden the "honeymoon" phase of pregnancy is over - I'm feeling very uncomfortable, tight, and unable to breathe. So, although I'm definitely not ready to meet this little babe yet, May seems SO far away. Indeed the baby is still emphatically a girl (whew!) and she was very stubborn during the ultrasound so it took a while to get the necessary pictures of her cord, abdomen, and heart, but everything looks good. My next appointment is scheduled for February 13th. I've included a very poorly lit picture of me, but it's the only one I have, so at least you can see my new haircut. I also have, more importantly, an u/s pic of Cecily. You can see her forehead, nose, and lips, with yet again a hand above her face.

So Cute

Okay, I know I'm going way overboard, but I can't help it. Look at the swing we bought for the baby this past weekend. Isn't it the most adorable thing? We probably could've gotten by with our old swing, but every little girl needs a princessy-looking swing, right? Hopefully she'll use it a lot, is all I can say LOL. We have an ultrasound to see Cecily again tomorrow, which I'm very much looking forward to. Oh, and tomorrow's the Inauguration, of course, which should be quite exciting. And this is a bit off-topic, but I wanted to share: the message in church on Sunday seemed very timely. It was out of 1st Thessalonians and Pastor Dave spoke about cultivating an attitude of gratitude despite circumstances. I felt that spot-on for these tough times. 1st Thessalonians 5:14-21: We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all. See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good, for one another, and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you. Don't quench the Spirit. Don't despise prophecies. Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

The Funnest Toy Ever!

I think if you could sum up this picture that would be the conclusion. Colin just wouldn't leave his brother in peace (Ian was trying so hard to play his Leapster) so I opened his very last Christmas present, a motorized racetrack from Grandpa and Grandma. It immediately caught both boys' attention and I snapped this great picture. Even Hero and Allegra thought it was pretty cool and played with it this morning. Well today is Thursday, which means that James will be home from Washington tomorrow evening, hooray! I've made it through another James-less week and it's just about over.

Allegra's Birthday Party

After way too many birthday parties with one or two guests, we finally wised up and decided to hold Allegra's birthday party the first weekend after school restarted. That must have been the magic trick, because we ended up trying to corral 13 kids for a birthday party at Idaho Ice World. It was a tough time, since James had sole responsibility for the kids on the ice (yes, he skated - he's not too bad either) and I had sole responsibility for the boys (Ian skated for about 15 minutes). It might sound as if I got the better end of the deal here, but when you consider that one of those boys is named C-O-L-I-N and he is a holy terror (love you buddy) I'm not so sure. We put on happy faces for Allegra though, and she seemed to have a great time. She was certainly excited to be the birthday girl for a "second" time in less than a month LOL.

Through-the-Bible in a Year

James, Hero, and I committed to reading through the entire bible this year along with other members of Meridian First Baptist church. Hero does it on her own, and she's even more on top of it then the adults are (although she did have to come downstairs one night in the middle of her reading to ask what circumcision meant - oy!). James and I take turns reading out loud, and things got a little punchy when we're behind and trying to catch up on multiple days' reading (luckily James got stuck with Genesis 14 and the all the tongue-twisting king names LOL). We've never done any reading together, so this has been an interesting experience thus far. We're supposed to be reading the Old Testament and New Testament simultaneously but we haven't even started the NT yet, oops. It's good for us to spend more time together and engaged in (mostly) serious study. Pastor Randy has a blog with daily comments on the assigned readings at http://thelordspoke.blogspot.com/

Over Halfway There

I can't believe that this pregnancy is over half done! Here's my most recent picture from Christmas Day - I was 19 weeks exactly. I'm 21 weeks today and I've really grown - I'll have to take a new picture (not to mention the fact that I have a new haircut and color). The baby moves quite frequently now and is starting to show her little personality. We've decided for sure on her first name, which will be Cecily (Ian thought we said Sesame LOL). I have a front-runner for the middle name, but I still have to work on James. ;-) She's moving around a lot, and we get to see her on ultrasound again the week after next, which I always look forward to. I've been buying a few things here and there but we made our first bigger registry purchase today. We had a 15% off coupon to Babies 'R Us, so I told James he could get anything that was on our registry and this is what he brought home tonight. Isn't it just the cutest? Okay, I will admit, I'm going crazy for the baby girl stuff - you'd never think I already had two daughters LOL.

Good Bye 2008 & Happy Birthday Allegra

The post-Christmas aftermath was relatively peaceful - we did some shopping, lots of cleaning, and some organizing. On Tuesday all six of us went and got haircuts (it actually went really smoothly). It had been over a year since the girls had had cuts and it was Colin's first, although I couldn't allow myself to let any length be taken off yet. Hopefully once the baby arrives I can let go of Colin's "babyness" a little bit. New Year's Eve was a casual affair. We spent the day cleaning up Christmas stuff in the house, although that didn't get finished until the Saturday after New Year's, while the kids played with their new stuff. Allegra opened cards and announced herself Birthday Girl immediately with a homemade ribbon she taped on herself. We are saving her presents for her party (this Saturday at Ice World) but we did get her an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen and sang to her. She is so excited to be seven. We spent the night at Nana and Papa's house, to the kids' delight, and rung in the new year playing the Wii. The kids slept over, so James and I got to sleep in on New Year's Day and then go for breakfast at Starbucks and to Babies 'R Us to register, all kid-free. It was so fun.

Christmas Day Pictures

I think I was the one who had the most trouble sleeping on Christmas morning, but that kind of comes with the territory when I'm pregnant. I finally allowed myself to get out of bed at 6:15 but no one else was up so I snuck into the kids' bathroom and curled my hair to pass the time. Finally around 7 I had made enough noise to wake everyone up LOL. The kids were so excited to see all the new presents, and most importantly of all, Santa's presents. We had a very nice morning of gift-opening and listening to Christmas music. After we had wrapped up the chaos at our house we got dressed and headed over to Nana and Papa's house for more gift-opening and Christmas dinner. We had ham, crab, Stollen, and lots of other good things. It was a wonderful Christmas - the kids got the presents they asked for from Santa (Hero - a Furberry, Allegra - a Swim to Me Rescue Puppy, Ian - a Leapster video game unit, and Colin - a Handy Manny tool set) plus ice skates for the girls, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse race track set for Ian, a watch for James, and diamond earrings for me, and a Nintendo Wii for the entire family. It was a blessed Christmas, physically and spiritually.