Devastation

I have been so sad looking at all of the footage and pictures of the tornadoes that swept through much of the south this past week.

I have some very good friends that were right in the path of destruction and are, thankfully, physically fine.

My friend, Leslie, lives in Cullman, AL.  Her house is ok and her family is ok.  Her husband’s dental practice however, is in need of complete repair. She put a video on her Facebook page that shows aerial footage of Cullman…

When you get to the one minute mark you have entered the heart of town and when you get to about 1:40, you will see her husbands dental practice-to the left of the red roof.

My heart goes out to all who have experienced loss because of these tornadoes!  I wish there was something I could do, some way I could go and help.  But, for now, I will pray for those who have been affected.  I encourage you to pray for those also.

Around here…

1. My belly is big.  Like crazy big.  My shirts don’t stay pulled down.  My lap literally rests on my lap.  I have to go to the bathroom all the time-but not really.  Even though I feel like my bladder is stretched to the extremes, barely anything comes trickling out when I do go…good times.
2. I still have horrible heartburn.  From about 8pm on, I have a fire in my chest.  Thank goodness for Tums.
3. My feet really started swelling this past weekend.  Huge.  Not pretty.  I would look at them and it was as if they were attached to a different body, like a man’s feet were fused to my legs.  Crazy.
4. Good news though.  No more swelling this week.  Actually none.  That’s great!
5. My back is not hurting too bad…unless I have to get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom (which I do, every single night).  Thankfully I haven’t fallen down yet.  That would be fun.
6. Cooking is not on my list of things that I really want to do.  Like, NOT AT ALL.  My poor family.  Thankfully, they enjoy peanut butter and jelly.
7. We are in the middle of having some work done at our house.  Well, Matthew is working super hard on our bathroom (he installed the shower last night!) but we also have some workers (neighbors) coming in and finishing our trim.  Due to the work (both bathroom and trim), our house is in a constant state of dust.  It’s big fun for this nesting gal.  Our house is never going to be clean again, I’m convinced of that.  Really, it’s never going to be clean.  Oh well.
8. I finish up with my Harding work tomorrow!  Yea!!!!!  I actually still have final projects to grade, but that can be mostly done from the comfort of my couch.  But, I’m glad that I am wrapping up my work!
9. We are scheduled to meet our baby in 2.5 weeks.  I wonder every day if he will come early (and part of me hopes he will although Matthew would have a heart attack if I voiced that)…how exciting to have that surprise!  HOWEVER, I was putting his little clothes away in his dresser the other day and putting his diapers in their spot and kind of had a mini-anxiety attack.  I am not familiar with changing baby boy diapers.  Give me a girl diaper to change, I can do it with my eyes closed.  A boy diaper…ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  I might break him.  Hopefully we have a good nurse at the hospital.  But I do know that after a day of changing diapers, I will have it figured out.  I will have no choice.
10. Elyn has been not so fun lately.  Pretty much ZERO fun!  She has thrown a fit every single day this week (possibly this month, I haven’t kept close enough track of it but I am confident that she has thrown a fit every day this week).  I feel like the worst mom in the entire world when we are in the midst of it and I am ready to “loan” her to someone else while it is happening.  But, amazingly, she loves me and tells me I’m the best and kisses me all over…and I think the same about her.  Sigh.  Motherhood-hard stuff.
11. I can’t sleep.  Oh, I mean I WANT to sleep.  It sounds so appealing, so wonderful.  But, when it’s time to go to bed, I am not tired.  I roll over in the middle of the night and I am awake for 30 minutes afterwards.  I go to the bathroom and have trouble getting back to sleep.  I wake up earlier than I would like…I think all of this is just getting me ready for Rives.

Sorry I’ve been absent from blogging…things are slightly crazy around here lately.  I have pictures to share, and for the sake of my children and their memories, I hope to post those soon.

Happy Easter!!!

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Eggs

Today started feeling like Easter around here!  We went to our Mommy and Me group at church…not a big showing of mommies or their little ones, but the four that were there had a good time.  After a pizza lunch, we let them “hunt” the eggs that had been scattered in the grass.  It was a beautiful morning/early afternoon…then the torrential downpour started about 2pm this afternoon.  Glad we got the hunt done early!

The crew: Kinsley, Elyn, Sterling and Nora

Same crew, just a different arrangement…where is your smile Elyn?

OH, there it is!

Because of the thunderstorms tonight, our soccer game was canceled (yea!) so we were finally able to do something that we had been too busy for…dyeing Easter eggs!!!!!

The Easter egg artists…

The artists, working hard!

Matthew and his masterpiece:

A basketball going through a hoop…I was impressed.

Nora and her masterpiece…it’s hard to tell, but she drew an Easter Bunny on her egg.  And when will she start smiling normally again?  The first smile she gave me was a half smile, similar to a stroke patient.

Elyn and her yellow egg.  She was not as interested in decorating…takes after her mama-ha!

Colorful eggs!  It was fun!!!!

As I was cleaning up, I saw my reflection in the window and I though, “WOW!  I look like an Easter egg too.”  So, I grabbed my phone and took a picture of my reflection.  3.5 weeks to go people.  My belly is huge!

A great day, full of eggs!

Recently…

We are a little over 4 weeks away from meeting our final baby.  People keep asking us if we are ready.  Ha ha ha!  That is so funny to me!  Is anyone ever ready for a complete life change?

Physically, I have been feeling better than I have in a long time.  Oh sure, I am tired and at the end of the day, I am definitely ready for bed.  But, my back isn’t hurting nearly as bad and I haven’t started swelling too bad.  For once, my weight gain isn’t too crazy (mostly because I have tried to be aware of what I am putting in my mouth-amazing how that works) and I am feeling pretty healthy.  So, physically am I ready to have this baby?  Well, I can hold on a few more weeks…I’m not praying for my water to break every day!

My clothes selection is getting smaller.  My stomach is expanding and my shirts are getting shorter and shorter.  I feel as if I am constantly pulling at the bottom of my shirts to make sure they are covering the skin.  Good times.  Thankfully, I will be wearing these shirts for a few weeks after Rives comes so I will have the opportunity to not pull down on them.

I also can’t see very much below a certain point due to my girth.  The girls are saying to me, all the time, “Mommy, what’s that on your shirt?”  Of course, I can’t see what they are talking about because it is out of my line of vision-ha!  I usually have to go to the mirror to see what I have done to myself.  But, once I have the baby, I won’t have the excuse of being pregnant to not see my shoes…I will need reign in the ‘ole belly.

I get up at least once a night to go to the bathroom.  And once, well, that’s not bad at all!  Getting out of bed is a different thing…it’s not super easy to heft me and a 5 pound baby, who is attached to me, out of bed.  But still, it’s just once a night.  When Rives comes, I have a funny feeling we will be up more than once a night and for a much longer time!

But the main reason we are not ready for Rives…well, let me show you some pictorial evidence:

This is the current state of our master bathroom.  Because of the construction in our bathroom, we are not sleeping in our room.  We are still sleeping in Rives future room…which is also still our closet.

Matthew is working super hard on making sure that the bathroom is done in time so that we can reclaim our bedroom.  Will Rives room be done?  Probably not.  Am I concerned about that.  As of right now, nope.

It’s amazing how different my state of mind is now compared to when Nora was born.  Like any first time mother, I needed everything to be done and perfect before we brought her home from the hospital.  I’m so glad that I did too!  I loved putting her room together and making sure that it was ready for her homecoming.  I think it is the first part of becoming a mother, getting things ready for your baby.  Does she thank me for having a perfect room for her when we brought her home?  Does she remember the time that her daddy and I put into her room?  Does she remember it at all?  Absolutely not!  But, Matthew and I do remember.

When Elyn came home, things were a little less ready for her.  We knew she was a girl but didn’t share that news with anyone else.  We also didn’t get a room ready for her because her big sister was still sleeping in the crib.  But, we did have a new bassinet for her and all of her little clothes washed and put away.  But even though she didn’t have a special room with her name on the wall, she survived and I think, feels pretty loved today.

With Rives, I realize how little he needs to survive his first few weeks at home.  We have a ton of clothes washed and ready for him to wear.  We have enough diapers for the first few months of his life.  I am nursing him, so we are good on food too.  We still have that same bassinet so he won’t have to sleep in a drawer.  He’s ready.

Now, due to my constantly changing hormonal state, I might freak out in a few weeks when I look around and see that we are about to bring an infant home to this money pit….but for right now, I am fine with the way things are-they are a work in progress.

So, are we ready for Rives…yes, we are ready to meet this sweet baby!  But, are we ready for everything to change and life to be completely different…probably not.

But, ready or not…here he comes!

Showering Rives

Some friends at church had threw a shower for Rives this past Sunday afternoon. It was so thoughtful of my friends…I really didn’t expect any type of showering to be done for our third baby…what a blessing!

I took the girls with me to the shower because I knew they would love the “party”. Sadly, right after we got to the church, Elyn took a tumble on the sidewalk and scraped up her knees pretty good and she was DONE for the rest of the afternoon.

Here is the table, cake and flowers…love his monogram!

Me and the hostesses…my shirt had side pockets in it. In hindsight, not the best look for a maternity shirt-oh well.

Look at all of my helpers-ha ha! They were RIGHT in front of me the entire time. Just as excited as I was.

Look at all the gifts…all the diapers are AWESOME!

And look at the sweet, wounded baby girl. She NEVER falls asleep when someone is holding her-NEVER. The trauma from the fall did her in!

We are getting closer to meeting our baby boy and excited about finding out all about him!

future Nadia’s

When I was growing up, one of the movies that my sister and I would regularly rent was “Nadia”.  I don’t know if you are familiar with the movie (and shame on you for not being familiar with such a classic!) but it is about Nadia Comaneci and how she scored a ton of perfect 10’s at the Montreal Olympics.

Here is also a clip from YouTube to let you know about the fabulousness of the 1984 movie:

You want to rent it, don’t you?

Well, this past weekend, we had our own little Olympic ceremony to attend.

Elyn was the first to “perform”:

Gathering with the rest of performers to get instructions from their teachers.

Not loving the warm-up so much-ha!

Finally, onto the “meet”…first thing, trampoline-her favorite!

Handstand

Check out the guns-ha ha ha!

Balance beam

Series of a cartwheel…

And this is when my camera quit working…someone (ahem, me) forgot to charge the battery the night before.  The rest of the pictures are very poor quality and will more than likely look horrible in the 2011 blog book. Ah well.

All done, tada!

Then, all the kids got to go to the team medal stand and get their “gold” medal.  So cute!

Elyn with her teacher, Ms. Karen.  She really loves Ms. Karen!

After an hour break and a breakfast at Chick fil A, we headed back for Nora’s portion (which was poorly photographed…I am so sorry Nora).

She liked the warm-up a little bit more than Elyn…

Ready to start the “meet”!

About to flip over on the bar…all alone!

Balance beam…

All done!

Waiting for the medal ceremony…

Her “gold” medal!!!!!!!!

Nora and her teacher, Ms. Maggie.

Our little Nadia’s…perfect 10”s on our book!