The Countdown

I am very excited about what is going to happen in 5 days........I will have a new baby to hold! On August 18, 2009 at 10:30 am I am going to have a C-Section to deliver little Benjamin Emmanuel. After all of the scares the doctors have given me over the past 2 months, everything looks perfect with the little guy, and I am doing well. I would say "great" but it wouldn't be true. My finger joints are pretty sore, and my feet swell quite a bit at night. That isn't painful--just ugly! LOL Also, he has dropped and is laying on just about every nerve possible down low making it a bit painful to walk as of last week! All of this is going to be totally worth it though once I get to hold him and kiss him and watch his daddy and brothers and sister welcome him into this world. I am not excited about the fact that I have to undergo surgery---I hate that part---but I am excited about what it will bring about. I have been washing, drying, folding and hanging all kinds of baby clothes trying to get ready for his arrival. It has been such a long time since I have had a little one that I am sure there are things I will need but won't even think about until after he is here. I put the car seat and stroller together all by myself! Annalisa put the high chair together with direction from me--now she sits in it to watch TV (crazy girl!!)! Jacob and Cole put together the pack-n-play with no help at all. They even all went shopping with me to pick out gowns, towels, socks, receiving blankets and burp cloths. Cole said it was the most fun he ever had shopping since he got to pick things out! So, there are 5 days left and we will have a new addition to our already wonderful family to make it even more wonderful! I will post pictures after he is here!

Happenings....

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged about anything! There isn't much to write about since the kids are gone. We took them to Jim and Ruby on July 3rd and haven't seen them since. Our house is very quiet, and although I am enjoying getting a few (and I mean FEW!) tasks done while they are gone, I miss them very much! They have never been away from us for this long, and we still have 2 more weeks to go. We did take the kids to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo the last weekend of June since we weren't going to see them again for 4 weeks. Baseball was over (Cole's team won 1st place!!!!), so we decided to do something special with the kids. Well, I TOTALLY forgot that we had been invited to our friends' house that evening to eat dinner with them. When Christy called me at 6:45--while I was standing in Mardel's in Colorado Springs--I about had a heart attack! I instantly remembered that we were suppposed to be at their house at 6:15! We got there around 8, and thankfully they are still our friends! We had brownies and visited until about 11. All I can say is pregnancy makes me very forgetful!

The next Friday we dropped the kids off in OK City with Nana and Papa, and they have been having fun in Texas. They spent a week with Nana and Papa, then a week with Windy (when Aunt Susan went into labor and had Alex!), then a weekend with Peepaw and Granma, and now they are headed back to see Nana, Papa, Aunt Susan, Uncle Juan, Alex, Aunt Jamee, Josh, Kate and Nanny! I don't know if they will ever want to come home to me!!


Because of some complications I am having with this pregnancy I got to see little Benjamin last Tuesday at the Perinatologist's office. I get to see him tomorrow too, and every Tuesday until he is born, so we can monitor him for anemia. So far there have been no signs of it, and I am hoping it stays that way through tomorrow's visit. He looked great, weighed about 4 lbs. 9 oz and has a big ole Newton head like my other 3!

We had some long time friends come stay with us for a few days, and we enjoyed visiting with them and 2 of their 4 beautiful children. We had Family Fun Fest with our church at the park, we went on a date to see The Proposal, Ben had his first overnight delivery-- to Montana (during which I stayed with my cousin because the house was just too quiet for me), but mostly we have just laid around the house relaxing!

This past Saturday we had a group of men come to our house to help clean up our yard and it looks so much better now!! We still have a lot to do, but this was a great start! At the same time the men were at our house, I was at the church being showered by a bunch of wonderful ladies! Benjamin got all kinds of presents and it is so weird for me to see such small clothes in my house again! I just know I can't wait to see the little guy and kiss his cheeks!!

Diapers!

A bunch of baby items given at the shower

Me--33 weeks 4 days pregnant

Hail Storm in June!

Today started off beautiful and sunny! I wore capris while Ben and the boys wore shorts. The weather was nice and warm. We came home from church, and I cooked homemade cream corn, broccoli with cheese sauce, and mashed potatoes. Ben grilled a London Broil that we had been marinating in soy sauce over night. It was delicious! We had the blinds open in the dining room while we were eating, and all of a sudden we could hear the weather siren blaring. We looked out the window and the wind was picking up quite a bit. Jacob DOES NOT like bad weather, so he started to get a bit worried that a tornado might come through. We were telling him that it wasn't a tornado when we started to hear the hail hitting the windows. When the kids could see that the hail was a pretty good size they got a bit excited about it, so we went into the garage together to watch it and get pictures. The hail storm lasted about 15 minutes, then everything got calm, and the sun came out bright again!

This is our backyard covered in hail:

Cole is holding a piece of hail:

Our front yard covered in hail:

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a great day for me! We went to church, ate lunch out, and then I had a 3 hour uninterrupted nap!!! I think that was the best gift my kids could have given me! BUT, they did get me small gifts too. They all picked me out a card and some candy. In the card they told me what candy they had gotten me and why.
Cole got me Nerds because he said I am smart and he has become a nerd because of my teaching.
Annalisa got me SweetTarts because she said I am always sweet!
Jacob got me Jelly Belly's because--he said--I have so much jelly in my belly!
Now how can you not smile (or laugh hysterically) at that?!?
I just can't say enough how much I LOVE my kids!!

Easter

The other day as I was taking Jacob to baseball practice we started talking about Easter since it is coming up. First we talked about Good Friday, and both Annalisa and Jacob (the only kids in the car at the time) asked me why it is called "Good" Friday. We talked about the fact that Jesus died for us on that day even though he didn't do anything wrong. I told them that if Jesus hadn't died for our sins then we would be lost in our sins, but God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us so that we could live forever with Him! The next thing I asked them is, "If Jesus died on Good Friday what did He do on Easter Sunday?" I thought for sure they knew the answer to this question. Annalisa thought for a minute and said, "I infer that on Easter Sunday Jesus gave us lots of candy and fun." I said, "No, that's not what Jesus did on Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday Jesus rose from the dead. He's not dead anymore! He is alive!" And Annalisa said, "Jesus lives in my heart and helps it pump so I can be alive." Jacob then remembered that when Jesus came back to life He saw His disciples again before He went to heaven, so we talked about that for a minute, but Annalisa was still concerned about the whole "easter" thing, so she asked me if it was Jesus' first Easter. I told her that yes it was the first Easter, so she asked me, "Then did the Easter Bunny bring Jesus candy?" Trying not to laugh at her real concern for something that is not important I explained to her that candy and the Easter Bunny are not what Easter is about. This prompted me to ask the kids to really think about what Easter means to them and write it down for me. I really wanted to see if they understood that it is not about hunting eggs or getting candy. I was very impressed with what each one came up with all on their own. Annalisa was the first to write and finish:

I like Easter because Jesus dide for us and in 3 days he rose again to see His people. And
He rosed out of heven to see uther people not just us. And He did not want to diy but He
wanted to diy for us so He dide for us because He wanted us to go to heven. He did not
want us to go to the devill. So He dide so we can go to heven. And that is why I like easter.

Cole was the next to finish his paper:

Good Friday and Easter are important to me because on Good Friday Jesus gave up His
life for us that aren't perfect like Him. Easter is important because on Good Friday it was
told that He would rise again in 3 days and Easter was the third day of Jesus being dead and
that was when He rose again. I like Easter and Good Friday because those days show me
how much Jesus and God love and care for us-- for Jesus to give up His life and for God to
give up His only son.

Then Jacob gave me his:

Easter is important to me because Jesus died for our sins. He rose again in three days and
visited His disciples for 40 days. Then He went to heaven. The night before He died He
prayed to not go through with that and He sweated blood. Easter is special to me because
now we can go to heaven.

I am very proud that even though they enjoy the egg hunting and candy, deep down they really do understand what Easter is about. They may miss a few things that as adults we get, but for kids they have a pretty good grasp of what it is Jesus did for us. I LOVE MY KIDS!!!