Mary had a little bicycle?

Nathan is so funny sometimes.  The other day he was playing with legos and singing.  I could tell that what he was singing was to the tune tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb".  I thought to myself, "Awe!  My child is so cute!"  Then I started listening to what he was saying.  Go ahead...sing along. You'll have fun. =)

Mary had a little bicycle, little bicycle, little bicycle.
Mary had a little bicycle, little bicycle, little bicycle.
A little bicy-cllllllllle

Mary likes to ride it fast, ride it fast, ride it fast.
Mary likes to ride it fast, ride it fast, ride it fast.
Likes to ride it faaaaaaast.

Then the bicycle fell on her, fell on her, fell on her.
Then the bicycle fell on her, fell on her, fell on her.
Then it fell on heeeeeer.

Isn't he sweet?

Big Brothers Rock

My sis-in-law, Angela...the Moda Home Mom, made the cutest shirts for Joseph and Nathan to wear at the hospital when Hannah was born.  Check out her blog, she has an easy to follow tutorial on how to make these cutsie shirts as well as many other tutorials on how to make various fabric crafts!

Hannah Leann!!!

My life has been a little crazy over the last few weeks.  As I'm sure you have guessed...I'm no longer pregnant. =)  At 40 weeks and 5 days Hannah decided to make her grand entrance into the world!!

Early on Sunday, May 2, I thought I was having some back labor and decided to stay home from church again.  The thought of going into labor at church was not appealing. ;-)  By early afternoon everything had stopped.  Big fat bummer.  So that afternoon we decided to take the kids to a local park so that they could ride their bikes around the lake there and we could walk with them.  It was really a nice time.  We tried to throw bread to the ducks in the lake, but apparently previous visitors had stuffed them full.  They totally rejected our bread offerings.  The more I think about it...the more funny it becomes.  I was completely exhausted when we were done.  By the time we left, I couldn't remember why I wanted to go in the first place. :-/  We went home and James' mom agreed to take Nathan home with her because I had three different appointments with my midwife's office the following day.  We went to bed that night...still no labor.

Monday, May 3 I woke up at 4am with a contraction.  About 15 mins later I had another one.  I continued to have contractions and when James' alarm went off at 4:40 I very flippantly said, "I've been having contractions."  He said, "Are they good ones?"  To which I replied, "Eh.  They're ok."  By 5am I decided that I was definitely in labor and decided to call my midwife.  James asked me if it was ok for him to take a shower.  I told him that if he was gonna do it, he better get moving. =)  My midwife called me back about 5:15 and I told her that my contractions were 6 to 8 minutes apart and about 60 seconds long.  She said, "Go to the hospital."  I was a little surprised that she wanted me to go already.  She knew that our plans were to labor at home as long as we could and my contractions weren't even that painful.  I told James what she said and he was as surprised as I was.  Anyway, so he got in the shower and I started calling our parents and our photographer.  By the time James got out of the shower I could no longer speak.  My contractions were so intense that I was afraid we were going to have an unplanned home delivery.  Talk about taking me for a surprise!  We grabbed Joseph and went to the car as soon as we could.  We were trying to explain to him that I was in pain, but it was going to be good because his baby sister was going to come out as a result.

When we were about 5 minutes from the hospital, I told James I needed to push.  He requested that I didn't push and began to push the accelerator a little closer to the floor. ;-) At 6:30, we finally made it to the hospital, waited for my current contraction to stop and literally ran to the hospital door.  We raced to L&D where they grabbed me a wheel chair and rushed me into a room.  My midwife was already there and ready to go.  They checked me and found that I was complete and ready to push, although I could have told them that!  Thankfully, my midwife told the nursing staff to not bother me with paper work and said I didn't need an IV.  I was thrilled!  I HATE IVs.  I started to push...and push...and push.  Nothing was happening.  This was my 4th delivery, it should have been a breeze.  My midwife told me that Hannah was posterior and that I needed to try some different positions to get her to turn.  So I tried some new positions and sure enough, she started to descend.  At 7:29am, my midwife told me to reach down and grab my baby.  I reached down and with her and James' help, Hannah made her grand entrance!   She was 7lbs 1oz and 20" long.  She was absolutely perfect.   After she was born we found out that she had 2 true knots in her umbilical cord!  The realization set in that we could have lost her a long time ago.  She is a miracle!  We are so grateful that the Lord took care of her during the time that I was pregnant.  While they were bathing her, they brought me the paperwork to sign.  It was quite comical to sign the waiver that I did not want an epidural for my delivery after the baby was born.  You do what you've got to do. =)

Since we have been home, we have had such a good time with the newest member of our family.  The boys simply adore her and are such big helpers.  We are such a blessed family!

We were so fortunate to have Amy with Aim Photography at Hannah's delivery.  Check out her website and you can see a slide show of the delivery. =)

40 weeks!

Ok baby girl....come out and play!!!  I'm 40 weeks today and ready to have a baby!  I've been having false labor off and on for about 3 weeks.  She has been a bit of a tease.  I'm hoping that the full moon will help trigger something.  I've tried all sorts of natural ways to start labor.  I've been doing lots of walking.  On Saturday I walked so much that I didn't even get up for church the next morning.  Those that know me know that missing church is pretty rare.  I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil.  TMI...I know...and I'm sorry but, we've tried intimacy.  I'm about ready to break out the raspberry tea.  A friend recommended Indian food.  Please leave me a comment if you know of anything else!!!

Not my timing, but His!

I feel like I have to control every aspect of my life all the time.  Being a housewife, I control how my home is run, what we eat, who my kids hang out with, our calendar, etc.  I think you get the picture.  At this point I am 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant with my daughter.  I am tired and moody.  I am over being pregnant and want her to be out here where we can all enjoy her.  I have been having all sorts of signs that labor is coming soon.  But in my opinion...not soon enough!  It seems that everyone I know is due to have babies about the same time as me...and they are having them!  My sis-in-law is in L&D right now awaiting the arrival of her precious daughter.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm totally excited for all of these women, but I'm jealous.  I'm ready to meet my little one!  I have to keep reminding myself that she will come in the Lord's timing and not mine.  I need to sit back and enjoy these last few days when I can feel her move inside of me.  I need to enjoy my last few nights of silence!  I need to enjoy my time with my boys and my wonderful husband.  I am such a blessed woman and just need to slow down a little bit. 

Isaiah 40:31 - But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Lord, please help me hide that scripture in my heart.

The covers wars!

The temperatures are so difficult these days.  We wake up with the temps in the 30's and the high's are in the mid 70's.  So it's basically impossible to regulate the temperature in the house...so we don't even try.  We still have the heat set to come on if it hits 70 degrees in the house.  Last night when we got home the thermostat said that it was 77 in the house!  So we turned on the fan in the living room to help cool things down.  A little later we were getting in the bed and I asked James if he would mind if I turned on the fan in our room.  This is how the conversation went from this point:

James: "Please don't.  I'm a little bit chilly."
Me: (looking at him like he has three heads) "Chilly?!  It is 77 degrees in here!  Can't you put on some more clothes?"
James: "No....can't you take some off?" (snicker)
Me: (looking down at what I'm currently wearing) "No!  Then can we at least take the comforter off the bed?"
James: "No.  Then I'll be cold."
Me: "So I'm expected to sweat?!"
James: "Stick your legs out of the covers."
Me: "I already do that!  It's hot and this is crazy!"
James: "......put your half of the covers on me."
Me: "Fine!" (insert lots of grumbling here)  "But don't get hot in the middle of the night and push them off on me!"
James: "OK.  I love you.  Good night." (insert snoring here)
Me: (thinking in my head) "I don't care how cold I get tonight...I will NOT take those covers back."

Well, it did get a little chilly...but I still didn't take the covers back...until he left for work. =)

Joseph is 6!

Wow!  What a weekend!  Friday, my oldest "baby" turned 6!  I can't believe it!  On Thursday night as Joseph was getting ready for bed he looked up at me with those precious little eyes and said, "Am I going to take goodie bags for all of my friends at school tomorrow?"  I gave him my best "deer in the headlights look" and said, "Of course you are!  You're taking them cookies....M&M ones.  Yeah.  That's what you're taking them."  Thankfully, he was satisfied with what I had to offer and happily went to bed completely excited about his birthday-to-be.  So I stayed up pretty late and made him the M&M cookies and put a couple of them inside a little bag for each of his classmates.  He was overjoyed to take them to school the next morning.  I almost forgot how fun that is for a child.

On Friday we had an appointment with my perinatologist to take another look at the baby.  She is doing GREAT!  She's perfect in every way.  She was moving the entire scan and kept sticking her hand in her mouth.  Her estimated weight at this time is 4lbs 3oz.  =)  After the doctor was done with her measurements, she surprised us and turned on the 3D scan.  It was amazing.  I have never wanted one before, and if the Lord has more children in store for us in the future I still won't choose to have one, but it was so cool! 

After our appointment, we went home and put a new enclosure net on the trampoline for Joseph's birthday gift and were trying to get it done in time for him to be home from school.  No such luck there, but he was very excited that he could jump on his trampoline again after we were done.

That night we went to Chuck E. Cheese's.  I must have a deep hatred for myself to go to that place on a Friday night.  It was the special request from the birthday boy and how do you refuse that?  All in all we had a great time, spent way too much money, and were completely exhausted when we left.

Saturday morning we started to clean and get our house ready for Joseph's birthday party.  Including us, we had a total of 28 people at our house.  That sounds huge to some people, but tuck this under your cap, 21 of them were family.  The kids had a great time!  We let them decorate their own cupcakes.  It was possibly the most genius idea I've ever had.  I only had to bake the cupcakes...nothing else.  I through icing and sprinkles at them and let them do it how they wanted.  Plus it was fun to see their creativity at work.  By the end of the party I was EXHAUSTED.  This pregnancy seems to be taking it's toll on me lately.  My husband being the wonderful man he is, took me to dinner that night so that I didn't have to cook.  I'm so blessed!

Sunday was fast and furious until after church.  Then we came home, at lunch watched a couple of movies and chilled out all day!  It was wonderful.  Joseph had a little bit of the "it's no longer my birthday" blues, but is doing better now.  Anyway, that was our weekend in a nutshell.