34

I turned 34 today!  Wow!

And, I feel every bit of my 34 years right now-ha!

It has been a great day and my family made it very special for me.

I did receive a very early wake up call from Nora, but she gave me the gift of going back to sleep…thank you baby!

When I came downstairs this morning, this is what greeted me:

A sign made by my three favorites!

The girls had wrapped presents and made cards and Matthew left them out before leaving for work:

They were so excited about me opening them.  They picked them up all by themselves:

Elyn picked out the flowers and Nora got me the vase.  Sweet girls!

We went to our mommy and me group this afternoon and my friend, Jasmine, had a cake for me.  We came home and the girls got a long nap (another present for me-ha!) while I read all of my Facebook birthday wishes, which made me feel like the most loved person on Earth!

Matthew came home and I got to open some other gifts..a gift certificate for a pedicure and a new compact camcorder!  I had mentioned last week that I wanted a Flipcam.  Well, someone was listening because that is what I opened up today!  Well, not the Flipcam, a Kodak version of it.  It’s waterproof too!  My phone does take video but it will not zoom and the playback is a bit grainy.  Anyway, I’m excited and look forward to many more videos of our kids being taken!

We went out to eat and had a very nice time and then came home and ate some cake that Matthew and the girls made last night.  My favorite, white cake and white icing:

Nora found some tablecloths and party stuff that I had put away, from old birthday parties, and she pulled it out and decorated the dining room for my “party”.  I love that girl!

It was a low-key, fabulous birthday party!!!!!  I am so lucky to have such a great husband and precious daughters.  They are my best gifts!

Prayers

I have several things on my heart that I would like to share with my readers.  I ask that you pray for the families in each of these situations.

1. My friend, Tesney, and her husband have been in the process of adopting a little boy for almost 19 months now.  The little boy, Kirill, is from Russia and has Downs Syndrome.  He is a precious little boy and has an infectious smile.

This picture was taken when Tesney and her husband went to Russia this past summer to meet Kirill for the first time. 

With adoptions from Russia, you have an opportunity to meet the child and then come back America and await news that a Russian judge has approved your case.

They have had several setbacks and found out today that the judge has taken their case into “review” until next week.  I encourage you to go to her website and place this family on your prayer list!

2. I do not personally know this family, but know quite a few mutual acquaintances.  She, along with her family, attend the church that I went to when I lived in Nashville, TN.

Her name is Sara Walker.  She is 33 and married with two little boys. Last month, she gave birth to a stillborn little girl.  And recently found out that she has stage 4 colon cancer.  She has a caring bridge site set up and I ask that you go and sign her guest book and offer some encouragement.

3. Finally, a little boy died today at a local elementary school.  He was in fourth grade and, at the end of the day, a soccer goal post fell on him.

I do not know the little boy or his family, but I am very familiar with the school and some of the staff.  The principal at his school is one of my close friends and I cannot imagine how she is feeling right now.  I cannot imagine how the family of the little boy is feeling tonight and how they will get through the next few days/weeks/months.  It is heartbreaking and makes us immediately ask, “why?”.

As for the “why”…we will never know.  But we do need to always remember that God is still God-no matter what!

Please keep these three families in your prayers over the next day and weeks.  I know they will be encouraged by your prayers!

making room in my schedule

I went to the doctor this morning for my 24 week visit. It was a great time.

I found out that I have gained PLENTY of weight, no need to worry about this little bambino getting enough nutrients.

I had to take Nora and Elyn with me this morning, which really is a non-issue. They are pretty well-behaved and are typically fascinated by all things "doctor". They love to hear Rives heartbeat with the doppler, they think the sound is funny.

Today was a first for them though...they were able to witness how a urine specimen is collected. And they thought is was HILARIOUS!!!!!!! I'm pretty sure they will beg to go back to each and every appointment with me just for the "going potty in the cup" portion of the visit. When Matthew got home from school today that was the first event from our day that Nora told him about-ha!

I mentioned to the doctor about my back pain. He didn't feel as bad for me as I would have liked for him to feel.

He did say that I am probably going to need physical therapy or a chiropractor...I'm looking for the less expensive of the two. My sister-in-law had a recent issue with her pregnancy and swears by PT...claims it has cured her. I'm leaning in that direction.

It's funny, I am wondering where I am going to find room in my schedule for therapy, it's already pretty full. However, if my doctor's advice would have been a weekly massage or a weekly mani/pedi, I would be inventing room in my calendar-ha!

I'm just thankful that the girls were able to hear the very strong heartbeat of their baby brother...and they laughed.

thoughts

Tonight, while saying the prayer at dinner, Nora said, "Thank you God for our new baby and for his nice name...but it's really hard to say (whispers to me...Mommy, what is it?)". Ha ha! Hopefully she can say and remember "Rives" by the time he is born.

Speaking of Rives...he is making it very difficult for me to walk and sit for long periods of time. I don't know if it is the difference between boys and girls or if it is because I am 3 years older, but this pregnancy...wow! It has NOT been a piece of cake. Examples:

On Saturday, Matthew took the girls out to run a few errands. He was gone for about 3 hours and it was lovely. I was able to get a few rooms picked up/cleaned, it was nice to be alone to do those things. I didn't get nearly as much done as would have liked, but that is life. Matthew and the girls get home and he mentions that he is going to work on windows. In my eyes, working on windows equals serious dust. I asked (okay, begged) him not to and he saw how fragile my state was and readily agreed.

THEN, I was standing there talking to him when all of a sudden my back started hurting and I just couldn't take it any longer and sat down on the couch and had an emotional breakdown. And poor Elyn was witness to the beginning of the breakdown. (Matthew mimicked her leaving the room later on and it was hilarious! I didn't see it because I was crying uncontrollably. Basically it was a very slow, side step out of the room and then quickly up the stairs to find Nora.) I'm sure she thought I had lost my mind-and I had! But, it was pregnancy induced. Ah...good times. I had to lay down on the couch for at least an hour because my back was hurting so much. (The root of the breakdown was that I felt useless. I can only do a few hours at a time before needing to plop down on my own personal massage table and have my private masseuse do some magic-oh I kid, but I wish I wasn't.)

The past two nights I have had to STAND to eat my dinner because it hurts too bad to sit down. I just tell myself I am burning more calories-ha! But, by 4 or 5 o'clock, every day I walk like I am crippled and, if I'm not sitting on a heating pad, cannot sit down for more than 10 minutes.

Matthew does try to rub out the knots in my lower back but it is nearly impossible to feel any relief.

Seventeen more weeks.

I know, QUIT COMPLAINING, right! I KNOW! I really am not crazy about all the complaining! It is such a tremendous blessing to even be in the position to have these aches and pains. I love feeling little Rives move around in my belly and watching him grow (and grow, and grow, and grow-I'm officially a giant right now).

BUT, this is my blog and I don't want to forget what I am feeling right now. For those of you who have had boy and girls, did you find a huge difference in your pregnancies? When I was pregnant with the girls, my chief complaint was heartburn. As the pregnancies progressed, I had trouble breathing because they were holding onto my lungs and squeezing them and trying to break my ribs. I never really remember constant back pain though.

What do you guys think?

I go to the doctor tomorrow for a routine visit. After I find out that I now weigh 300 pounds (and that is exactly how I feel) and get a lecture on that, I am hoping that he will prescribe a cure for my back pain. Fingers crossed!

However, I feel like I will hear, "You need to slow down and take it easy." Not gonna happen. Oh well, I just need to step up to the plate and learn to deal with a little bit of pain for the next few months...it will all be worth it in the end!

In closing, a heating pad is the best invention EVER!

he has a name!

Our baby boy now has a name!  We are able talk about him and call him by name…it’s still a little surreal that we are choosing a name for our son, our 3rd child.

We’re BIG on family names!  For instance-

Nora Elizabeth: Matthew’s maternal grandmother’s first name is Nora and his paternal grandmother’s first name is Elizabeth

Elyn Ann: Elyn-a name we liked; Ann-my maternal grandmother’s middle name and Matthew’s paternal grandmother’s middle name

As we were talking about names for our baby boy, we knew that we wanted his middle name to be either Matthew or David, after his daddy.  And of course, we knew his last name would be Henderson-ha!

The first name was more difficult.  I started gravitating towards biblical names…Sam, Isaac, Gideon, Silas.  I really liked them all but just never felt devoted to one in particular.

The problem with me is that I REALLY like a name and then 2 seconds later I’m all, “I don’t know…I don’t think I like it that much anymore.”

Matthew knows this and because he knows this trait about me, he never showed a ton of preference for one name over the other.  That kind of annoyed me-ha!

I was ready to settle on one of the biblical names (because they really were great!) when we started talking family names.  We mentioned one name and I just couldn’t get it out of my mind…it was stuck and I knew that was the name of our little boy.

His name is:

Rives Matthew Henderson

Rives (pronounced “Reeves”) was Matthew’s Papa’s middle name.  Papa passed away almost two years ago.  He was a very important part of Matthew’s life and, if pressed, I would have a very difficult time thinking of a better man.

Matthew, obviously, is for Matthew.  (I hope you caught that.)

I think that this little boy has the best name ever!  He is named for the best men I know.  I pray that my son will be the man of God and a man who loves his family with his whole being, just like those he is named after.

We hope you that when you pray for our baby, you will now pray for him by name.

This and That

Well, dropped the ball again…over a week and I haven’t blogged.

Sorry all four of you.

We have not been too busy, so that is no excuse.  However, Nora has been a little under the weather and I have spent a few days running to the bathroom with her and monitoring her intake of food/fluids.  Not to mention having to listen to all the whining that has been going on…aye yie yie!

Thankfully, in the past 24 hours she has been completely normal and we have all been much happier!

We had a snow day today and another tomorrow…yea!

Here is Nora, enjoying a little snow ice cream, homemade by her daddy. Yum, yum!  The snow was perfect for ice cream NOT perfect for snowmen.  Too powdery.  The thing Nora was most excited about today was a snowball fight-ha!  Too bad the snow was not good for snowball fights either.

We have been thinking about our baby boy a lot.  We think we might have a name…we just have to commit to it.  AND I have found some bedding that I really like…it’s not the typical blue bedding.  I’ll share it when we are certain of it as well.

It’s supposed to snow here again Sunday night…this is looking like it might be a 5 day weekend.  Too bad we didn’t go on a vacation!

A semi snow day

No school today!!!!!!!!  We had approximately 1 inch of snow and that was enough for us to sleep in and not go anywhere all day today!

When we woke up, the wind chill was NEGATIVE 3!  The girls were so excited to go play in the little bit of snow that we had but we had to wait until the wind chill was positive before heading out.

We spent the morning playing with some homemade play-doh.  It was my first time to ever make it and it was EASY!  I don’t know why I have never done this before…I don’t think I’ll be buying store bought again any time soon!  This is the recipe I used if you are interested:

Play dough

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring
Mix all ingredients (add food coloring last). Stir over medium heat until smooth and pulls away from the sides. Remove from pan, let cool slightly, and knead until blended and smooth. Store in a plastic bag or airtight container when cooled.

Before the dough was kneaded…

kneading…

two colors-for boys and girls

It finally warmed up (ha! warmed up to 19 degrees) so we all bundled up and headed outside.

Elyn is so lucky to have an older sister!  Everything she wore fit her perfectly.  She was ready to go!

Look at poor Nora…it’s like she’s our least favorite child.  Her snowsuit is too small and we had ZERO snow boots that fit her.  She had to wear cowboy boots that are too small for her too.  We need to step it up and get the girl some clothes and shoes that actually fit!  Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind too much.

My mom got the girls a sled for Christmas…we used it for the first time today.  It worked out pretty good and I can only imagine how great it will be when we have a lot of snow!

You can see from the pictures that a LOT of grass was poking through the snow.  After a few times down on the sled, it was more grass than snow.

Matthew was the official “pusher”.  I was struggling to breathe in my snow pants and wasn’t able to do much more than take pictures.  Getting them buttoned was difficult with my every growing belly in the way.  The girls thought I looked hilarious!

When you are standing on our deck it is difficult to see that there is a slope in our backyard.  However, go take a walk in our backyard or shove a sled down it and you will notice the slope right away.

After a few rounds on the sled, it was time to make some snow angels and eat some of the snow

Back to the sled…

Look how much she is enjoying it…

Look at how Nora is leaning into the climb up the slope-ha!

I think Elyn’s favorite part was to ride in the sled while Matthew was dragging it back to the top.  She would lay there, with her eyes closed, and say, “Faster, faster.”

There wasn’t enough room for them to ride down at the same time but they enjoyed sitting together and getting warm.

Here is a video of each girl sledding, Elyn first and then Nora.  Oh, and FYI, slamming into the fence at the end of the video was their favorite part!

It was a great day!  After lunch the girls and I got a nap while Matthew did some painting.  When the girls got up, they spent about and hour playing with the play-doh again.  We had some PW chicken tortilla soup for dinner (easy and delish!) and played a few more games before bedtime.

I love a snow day!

Snow, snow, snow, snow…

We didn’t get the snow that I had hoped for last night.  Everyone in our area went to school.  Nora’s school did let out early (silly).  Either way, we have had a nice afternoon/evening.  We had potato soup for dinner and made cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the morning (with the hopes of all four being here to enjoy them).

Matthew had a lot of fun with the girls tonight.  While I cleaned up the kitchen, they played three games and then Nora and Elyn had a contest to see who could jump the furthest off of the couch.

A few nights ago, Matthew taught the girls how to sing about snow-quite comical!  Here is our family singing tonight.  Keep in mind, none of us have a desire to become a professional!

If you are confused as to what we are doing, we are trying to mimic this little classic:

Oh, the nights are just full of endless fun at this house!

And here is to hoping for snow!

snow?

Our first "snow" of the season has hit! We have not really seen that much snow, not like they got to the south of us. I'm jealous that we didn't get the accumulation that they got in Little Rock!

I am sure that we will be going to school tomorrow morning but I LOVE a snow day! I don't love 11 snow days but I do love one extra day at home!






Here is our current 7 day forecast:



Maybe we'll get a snow day at least once this week...

The night Meemaw went ice skating

On the way to work this morning I heard that this was the last weekend that our local outdoor ice skating rink would be open.

Well, I had wanted to go when everyone was here at our house for Christmas but never brought it up because I knew that I would need to do some convincing to get everyone to go and I just didn’t have it in me.

I thought to myself, “Self, tonight is the perfect night to go.  The weather isn’t going to be too cold, we don’t have anything planned and we need a night out as a family.”

I sent Matthew a text that said, “Call me when you get a chance-love you!”  (I always add “love you”…because you know, I do love him.)

He called and WAS NOT excited about ice skating tonight.  Something about his knee.

Sigh.

But, guess what??????  We still went!  (I think it was the “love you” that was attached to the text that did it for me…probably)

We bundled up and hit the road.

The girls were pretty excited…

See, Meemaw is super excited too!!!!  The walker kept Meemaw from falling on the ice her first few times around the rink.

Look at the good sport tying up his laces (but there were not any ties)

We got the younger Meemaw a walker for her first spin on the ice and she hated it!  She was all, “I’m so much younger than Nora, I don’t need a walker!  I can walk on my own!”

So, she abandoned the walker and took off with her daddy on her own.  (Looks like the kid in front of her could really use the walker).

Look at Meemaw…she’s so happy to be upright and on the ice.

Look who has decided to go out on her own-way to go youngster!

And some blurry proof that I skated too.  And a video that shows Nora at the end of our little ice skating adventure.

It really was a fun night and Matthew even enjoyed it…yea!!!!  I guess we’ll have to wait until next year to go, because you know, it was the last weekend.