36 Weeks!

Doesn't look like there's much room left in there! Nothing new to report on the pregnancy aspect just trying to get everything prepared for her arrival. I think within the week everything should be taken care of and all we need is her! Not much else going on in my neck of the woods, stil working a lot. Asa's enjoying his new job and I'm enjoying him being back at work and not at home so much ;-p The kids are good full of energy, all the time! Connor's getting excited to see his little sister, he's been talking more about it in the last week! He says he wants to hold her while he watches his cartoons! I think that can be arranged for him!

Oh yeah, they both thought they were pretty hot stuff with their sunglasses on! Now if only they would keep them for the approiate reasons but I think they each just like to take them off and put them back and take them off and put them back on!

Who-Hoo!!!!

So another doctor visit down and I'm now on to every single week appts. Lost 3 pounds in the past two weeks so that brings my grand total to 2 lbs!! I'm pretty happy with that :-) I long for the days when I can exercise and start losing more weight again. I mean I can exercise right now if I want to but who ever wants to do that when they're pregnant!? I was really good at first about riding my bike and exercising but let's just say it's been non existent in the past 3 months! I had to have my blood rechecked today because I guess at my last appt the blood platlette (sp?) count was low so it has to be rechecked today. We'll see where that goes. And on to the most exciting part as far as I'm concerned.....got my cervix checked today!! And dum da da dum I'm 50% effaced and 3 cm dilated!! I was expecting to be at least 1 cm dilated so was rather happy with 3 cm! My doc says he's guessing I'll go two weeks before my due date which is in like two and a half weeks! But if I don't go that early then at my doc appt on Feb. 19th we'll strip my membranes which should hopefully start my labor! It worked with Zachary so I'm hoping it'll work this time although if I can go into labor all on my own I'll be happy too! So crazy to think that I'm about to be a mother of three! I'm anxious to meet my little Taylor and see what she looks like. I think I'm more curious this time than before just because it's a girl this time. When Zachary was born he was the spitting image of Connor so I'm curious as to if she'll look like them too....

Photo Shoot Part 1

So I was going to wait to post the pictures of my photo shoot but since my friend Shasta has received some devestating news I'm not sure when she is going to be able to get the rest of my shots for me. We had a blast doing the photo shoot, took over 120 pictures! The weather outside was freezing cold! The kids were cold, we were cold but you always get nice pictures outside! We decided to go down to our local park which didn't turn out as well as we thought because the wind was going crazy down by the river. Every shot my hair is all over the place! Overall lots of laughter was had and it was nice to hang out and just talk, something we hadn't done in a long time! I appreciate her doing this for me so thanks Shasta, again!

Oh the cuteness! I decided to break out the camera today since it's been awhile to see if I could get any good shots of the boys. Well I got a few and here's one! Today Zachary is 18 months old!! I can't believe it! He's getting to be such a big boy but then in other ways still seems much like a baby to me! Hard to believe that he's gonna be a big brother next month! I know I know I've already talked about how much it freaks me out that next month I'm going to be giving birth! But seriously as each day passes and that means I'm one more day closer to having three kids I get more and more freaked out about it! I think I'm going to be purchasing one of those baby slings to carry her around in and hopefully that will help me manage all of them by myself! Anyone got any opinons on the baby slings good, bad or who knows? On a little bit of a different note I'm happy to say that Asa finally got a job!! Very excited, he starts tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready for him to start :-p I'm looking foward to not working so much myself now! I feel like I've been working so much and giving so much energy to all these other kids when I work that when I come home I'm so tired and don't have the energy to spend much time with my own kids and I'm ready for that to change!

Yay, Finally!!!

It is with great pleasure that I post this picture because we finally agreed on a name!! I am super excited to finally refer to her as Taylor. It's a name that I've had in mind for awhile I was just waiting on the final word from Asa and today at my photo shoot with Shasta (thanks again Shasta!!) he said that we could do these blocks with her name! As it turns out this is actually a family name because my grandma's mom's maiden name is Taylor so it just seemed right! Her middle name will be Elizabeth which is a family name in Asa's family so we got lucky as to include both families in the name of our daughter!!

32 Weeker

Wow it's hard for even me to believe that next month I'm going to be giving birth to my little girl! I'm almost done with this pregnancy and overall it's been a really good pregnancy. I have my moments of wanting to complain about being uncomfortable because yes she is jammed up into my ribs and yes it's uncomfortable for me to sleep at night but I try to avoid being too whiny! I think that part of the reason why it's not more uncomfortable for me is the fact that I haven't gained much weight. My body doesn't need any more extra weight than what it already has! Anyways there's the latest! My kids get so excited when they get the numbers on their belly!

Doctor's and Friends

My doc and I seem to be seeing a lot of eachother lately! I've been in once a week for the past three weeks but he gets a break from me next week! I had the lovely pleasure (ugh) of visiting the office last week to get a non stress test done which I had never had one of those before so I decided to take Zachary along with me. Not a good idea! They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and I had to sit reclined in a chair for 30 minutes while Zach just hung out. He did okay for it but I was happy when I was able to get the monitors off. The reason why I had to do my test was because the day before I was running through the kitchen to get to my son who I thought was choking who in actuality wasn't, I tripped over a sock and tumbled onto the kitchen floor. Not a pretty sight. I scraped up my side on a box that was in our kitchen but I think thankfully that I didn't land on my stomach, just my side! So everything went good with the test and she is still thriving in my belly! And today's doctor appt went about as quick as one could go, checked the heartbeat which was healthy, measured me which was exactly where I should be and I was sent on my merry way 3 lbs heavier! She is head down for now but that could change more in the next few weeks but I hope she just stays head down so I don't have to worry about a c-section! Although it's not too fun when she decides to stretch her body with what little room she has in there cuz in that process she pushes with her head right on my bladder and I feel like I might pee right then and there! But I'm not complaining because I know that when I no longer have my pregnant belly I'm gonna miss it a lot so I try not to think about the more annoying things of pregnancy! On a different note I spent an awesome morning with my friend Katie at chatterbeans where my kids enjoyed themselves immensly playing! It was a nice relaxing time just hanging out and catching up! And there is even more fun happening this weekend because I am taking my pregnancy pictures with Shasta and I'm very excited about that! Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll get some good shots!

The holiday tradition continues!

So this has been the second christmas spent at my parents new house and the second year that we've all gone in the hot tub before we open stockings. I think it's a good tradition that I don't mind continuing! I love to watch my husband and my brother play with the boys. They all have such a blast in there and it seems to wear my kids out right before bedtime which is always a plus!

Merry Christmas!

Well I hope everyone enjoyed there christmas! My family had a good time and I enjoyed everyone's company! It seems like we've been celebrating christmas for over a week now because we do stuff ahead of time with some of Asa's family and then with Connor's birthday right before christmas it seems like a week filled with family, fun, and presents! Zachary came down with a cold christmas morning which wasn't too fun for him. He didn't seem too bothered by it but you could tell he didn't feel completely well. He had a runny nose all day. When we finally got home and got him ready for bed I could tell he was pooped out just didn't know how pooped out until I checked on him before I went to bed. He had thrown up all over his crib and he didn't cry about it or nothing and he went to sleep. Luckily he was only lying next to his throw up for 15 minutes or so! We took him out of his crib and he spent the night on his bunk bed! Now I think that's one tired boy to throw up and not even have the energy to cry or nothing! Connor had the pleasure of staying at grandma's house last night as well and he had a blast! Today so far he's been just hanging out playing with all his new toys!

The joy of opening presents! Connor had a blast and he helped everyone open their presents as well as his own! This was Zachary's first real christmas where he got to participate! Last year he was five months old so he didn't really do much!

Doctor's Appt

I had my doctors appt this morning. It's hard to believe that I'm now on to my every two week appts. It makes me realize that yes this baby is going to be here sooner rather than later. While I'm extremely excited to finally see my daughter I'm definantly more than a little nervous as to how I'm going to handle three children. My life seems so busy with the boys and Zachary still seems like more of a baby to me than the little toddler he's turning into. But there's no turning back and I'll get through it! Anyways getting sidetracked my appt went well. I had my glucose screening test so I had to drink my lemon lime drink and then sit there for an hour. Don't know the results of that test but am fairly confident that there' s nothing to worry about. Gained two pounds in the past month so I'm at my original weight now. I need to get my butt into the gym to start exercising cuz I was told that at this point exercise will be the only thing that maintains my weight. I've been severly slacking in that dept the past 6 weeks. I'm no longer riding my bike to work since it's dark when I leave work and that was my main form of exercise. I'm hoping in January I can convince myself to exercise at least 2-3 times a week. We'll see! Our little girl was doing wonderfully in the appt, heart rate was strong and I'm measuring exactly as I should be. I had talked before about a name and I thought Asa and I were close to an agreement but he has since recanted on what he originally said. It might still be her name cuz I'm done looking through name books and if he wants to continue looking then he can but for some reason I don't see him doing that so it might just take more convincing on my part before I know for sure! Okay good enough update for you guys?

The joys of seeing Santa

So I was completely bummed because since I've been working so much I missed taking my kids to see Santa. But Asa took them yesterday and they went to my mom's work to get their picture taken with Santa. Asa tells me that Zachary was fine with sitting on Santa's lap only until Santa tried to talk to him then all hell broke loose. They had to take a quick picture because Zachary was just screaming with his hands out saying "dada, dada" And then I guess Connor was looking at the elf's shoes and not at the camera! Oh well, can't get a good picture everytime! But Connor was very excited to talk to Santa and he told him that he wanted balls, trucks, and cars! So I'm sure he'll get some of that from Santa ;-) 

Can you guess how many weeks?

The latest in the happenings of my belly! 

Holiday Card Fiasco

So I decided to take on the task of getting the right picture for my christmas cards a few weeks back! After two photo sessions on two different days, lots of tears and lots of smiles it's done! It is such an adventure to try to get both your children looking in your direction and smiling at the same time! Asa and I were each in the room trying to get these kids to smile and in the end it all worked out!

This is the way I felt while I was deep in the middle of getting the right picture! I don't think anyone in our household was a happy camper then we had crying kids and weary adults, not a good combo! But makes for a priceless picture that I will treasure when my kids are older! Next year is going to be even more interesting adding a third child to the mix of getting a good picture! 

The Finished Product

After much time and energy on my part there is the finished picture for my holiday cards! There could still be some improvements made to it but honestly I don't want to devote any more energy to making it look okay! 

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos
I decided to take some video last night and the first part is my kids version on giving my belly kisses! They love to sit there and do that and as I watch it after the fact it looks like it would hurt my belly but alas it doesn't hurt at all so no worries! Connor loves to start singing songs when I do the video of course this song he sings I'd never heard before but you never know what you'll get with him. He is singing about the cars movie from the tune of itsy bitsy spider! And the kisses at the end are for their Nana as Connor said once I turned the video off! Enjoy!

Belly Time

There's the latest on the belly! I've been trying to mess around with photoshop and figure out how to use all the features so hope you like it! And I'm also happy to report that we are really close to having a name and hopefully in the next week we'll reach a final decision. I can't believe that I only have 3 months left in this pregnancy! It seems like time has flown by! I really enjoy my time at night with her because it's about the only time at all that I feel her move. I love to lay on my bed and just wait, sometimes she starts kicking right away other times she doesn't. I'm not too upset about not feeling her all the time cuz this is the exactly the way it was with my other kids as well. 

Busy Busy

Today was a busy day for me which was good because honestly with everyone home all the time besides when I work is sometimes more than all of us can take! There is no new update on the job situation but I appreciate all of your suggestions that I've received so far and hopefully soon I'll have some good news on that aspect. Any and all prayers would be much appreciated! But on to my day, my mom is a lucky lady and through my dads insurance she is able to get a massage every week that is covered and she has to pay a small co pay. So she has become really good friends with her massage lady and the lady actually teaches massage therapy at the college so the massage lady says they need pregnant women who are willing to come in and let students pratice how to give a massage to a pregnant lady. My mom volunteered me (much to my delight) and I went in today to get my free pregnancy massage! It was very relaxing and I am more than willing to do it again! It's about the only time I've been able to have some "me" time in a really long time! And then to add to my delight after the massage I went and had lunch with my best friend. It was nice to be able to go out to lunch with her without my kids in tow. We actually had more of a chance to just talk. While I love spending time with the kids it's nice to just be for a few hours and to not always having to focus my attention on them. After lunch it was time to go pick Connor up and take him to busy buddies. Once he got dropped off I decided to go to the library and look for a baby name book since I'm at a loss and I found 3 books so I will now be sorting through them and hopefully coming up with something soon. I have one name in paticular that I like but I am still trying to convince Asa of that name so if I don't see any new names in these books I will have to start bugging Asa more about this name until he hopefully cracks! With my library books in hand I head home to load up Asa and Zachary and we are then off to the doctors office. While waiting for our appt Zachary was cracking us up because he didn't want to play with any of the waiting room toys, he figured out that if you push the button on the water fountain that water comes out! This kid thought that it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't stop laughing! It was cute :-) Once we got in to see the doctor is was quick, quick, quick. I'm about the most boring pregnant women ever because I never have any questions so all he has to do is check the heartbeat (which was healthy and strong!) and then I'm on my way. I'm happy to report that while I gained a pound this last month I am still one pound below when I first got pregnant! So that's about it for my day today and hope you all have a good weekend!