Don't Ask Don't Tell (Vol. 30)

Last night I hosted a Mom Swap with some friends from my MOPS group.  I will tell you more about it in my next post.  The kids had to go to bed at their bedtime last night - 7 - 7:30 PM.  This is when all the women were arriving with their toys, clothing and "swap items."  Grace, in particular, was very excited about all the toys coming into the house because she donated some of her toys and wanted them to be swapped.  We kept having to send her back up to her room.  Finally she stayed up there and fell asleep.

Then I noticed something hanging in the window, blowing in the breeze.  

Look very closely in this photo.  Can you see something hanging from Grace's window?  It is the white paper over the left window on the bottom.

It was a message to my friends on toilet paper hanging with dental floss:

21 weeks

This post is dedicated to my mom (she hasn't seen me in 3 months), Pam (who is very interested in pregnancy photos) and Whitney Houston (bathtub safety).  Here is a photo that Sam took of me at 21 weeks.  My old neighbor has a blog in which she outlines what her daughter wears each day.  So to copy her, I will let you know what I am wearing.  I have always wanted to do that.

Everyone is asking how I am feeling!  I am feeling great, I am sleeping really well except for the mysterious animals (fox, coyote, wolf?!) outside that are howling at night.  The baby is pretty chill, I feel her move a lot but haven't felt anything with my hand on my stomach.  We have cut back even more on extra stuff and events.. that has helped a lot.  We haven't done any nightly or weekend activities (piano, soccer, ballet) for almost a year now and it has really changed the pace around here.

Black blouse (Hand-me-down from Sarah, Loft), Red Tank (Target), Jeans (Gap Maternity), Shoes (Christmas gift from Sandy, Toms), Watch (Charming Charlies), 2 Bracelets (Unique and made by my friend Tonya), Bench (hand-me-down from my brother Brian's office), Horse named "Sparkle" (yard sale)

The kids wanted in on the action... 

Sam:  4 years, 7 months

Rodeo shirt (Gymboree, thrift store), Jeans (Gap), Crocs (thrift store)

Ellen:  27 months

Cableknit sweater (Hollie), Romper (Old Navy, thrift store), Tupperware popsicles (thrift store), pillows (Pier One)

Babysitting the Neighborhood Bunnies

We babysat our neighbor's bunnies for 1 hour last week.  She is selling them for $20 if anyone is interested.  They are at a really cute size right now.

 

 

A glimpse into our private moments!

I just dowloaded the video of when we told the kids we were expecting a baby.  Nate and I think it is funny.  Ellen wants to eat, Sam wants olives, Rita wants to go out for ice cream and Grace gets excited!  We did not expect so much silence.  Click here to watch.

In case you wanted to see more views of the reaction from our gender reveal party, I posted them below.  I have gotten more hits on my blog from this party than anything I have ever blogged about in 4 years!  I wish I had decorated my house more because maybe then it would be featured in a magazine or something.  In fact, one of my best friends from Ohio, just participated in a gender reveal for her friend who has three boys and she is a having a ____.  Click here to see Michelle's reveal (Michelle wasn't there though, she dropped the box off with Pam.)  It is going to be all the rage this coming year.

Here is the anticipation before we bit the cupcake.  We had to be clear on the rules.  Click here to see.

Here is Sam's delayed reaction after we found out.  If you didn't catch it, he didn't know he could take a bit.  Click here to see.  Everyone loves Anne yelling "Praise the Lord!"

Lastly, Kristin put her IPhone on me the whole time and you can see my reaction here.  I truly was SHOCKED  and not disappointed when I saw it was a girl.  I was sad LATER to think we weren't probably going to ever have another boy but it wasn't devestating.  Now I am really adjusting to the idea of four girls.  I have started to get rid of EVERYTHING boy - no more green - and going all out PINK!  I got a hot pink stroller for Ellen this week because I can hand it down to the baby.

February Happenings

 17 weeks (new paint job in the background of the house!)

Look at what I found at the thrift store - not the baby, the stroller!

 Grace on her way to the cowboy party of a friend at school.... 

 Grace dressed up for Bible Character Day at school.  

Can you guess which Bible character she is???

Journaling (Vol. 6)

Ultrasound Shots

I know this photos are difficult to understand if you aren't an ultrasound person but they are pretty amazing.  I think this is the face.  When I went into the ultrasound she said that I was way earlier than I thought I was.  But when she measured, she said that I measured further along than they thought?  

With that said, the due date is August 4 - Sammy's Birthday.

 This is a foot.

 This is the other foot.

 This is the face.

 This is the ankles and feet.

 And I guess this is the proof!!??!!  She took this with my eyes closed and typed it up when I was out of the room.

Gender Revealing Party!

We decided to have a gender revealing party.  We invited over some friends, grandma was here, made a lot of hype about it with the kids and were so excited!  The suspense was killing us!  I had the ultrasound on Monday and explained to the technician what the plan would be.  She found out the gender of the baby, called the bakery (I prearranged this with the bakery) and the cupcakes were made!  The plan was to eat the cupcakes together and I would be surprised as well.  It went off without a hitch!

 We ordered 14 cupcakes from a little bakery nearby.  I was disappointed that they put their "signature" toppers on the cupcakes because I was thinking it would be a boy!  I had so many reasons to think it would be a boy and I had so many reasons to think it would be a girl.  

BOY:  I thought I saw the boy part in the ultrasound.  The cake topper was blue.  The ultrasound tech WAS SURE of the gender ... made me think it was a boy.

GIRL:  My OB led me to believe she didn't see a boy part.  Grace wanted a girl so badly.  I have mostly girls anyways!

 Grandma helped set the table and we were ready for dinner.  We had SO MANY phone calls during dinner because everyone knew that we were doing this after dinner for dessert.  It was really funny because the chicken took an HOUR to be grilled so we had to wait.  I had butterflies in my stomach.  Grace was so giddy.

 After dinner, the cupcakes were served.  The kids were so excited.

Click here to see what it was like (chaos!) when we took the first bite.  

That will take you to the video of the SHOCK!

 What a fun surprise!  A BABY GIRL!

 Sam was precious.  He didn't know he could eat the cupcake and kept saying, is it time, is it time?  Then he started crying and said he was mad at the doctor and baker for making the cupcake pink.

 Grace, Kristin and Rita.

 Nate is doing great... in case you were wondering!

More golfing with Sam is in his future!