Just a few pictures

The kids were watching Curious George ... on top of each other! It really is a full length couch. :)

Pierce's awesome tower/Spider Monkey!? He was SO proud.

My hair-do. You can't see the highlights too well, but there's some blonde and red in there.

The crowd that gathers anytime I pull out the camera.

Click here to see Alayna and I reading Jesus. :)

Mine!!!

Well, the angel baby has turned a corner in the last week. All of the sudden, miss selfish bossy pants discovered the word "MINE!" and uses it in every other sentence. She brings me the baby's clothes out of the baby's drawers and proclaims, "These are Layna's." She pulls books off of my bookshelf and brings them too me, "My books." She grabs an armload of laundry off the couch including spiderman underwear, maternity jeans and daddy's socks, "This laundry Layna's." Seriously?! We went out to David's shed last night for some different scenery (and the kids are aloud to jump off the couch out there - rain is going to drive us batty). Alayna started pulling stuff out of a box, "What's that?" she'd ask. "That's a charger." She'd pull it to her chest, "Layna's charger." It's that way with everything. What is going on here? The boys went through their own little "Mine" stages, but not this drastic.

So, I explain to her (if you can explain things to a one-year-old) that it is not hers and show her something that really is hers. She proceeds to throw herself in the floor and fake cry, "No, that Layna's." So, I have to discipline her for the fit and usually send her to her bed to cool off. Praying for wisdom here - don't know what else to do with this little sin-nature.

Bathroom Makeover and Bionic Dog

He's such a big boy now.

The bathroom makeover - no flash, just beautiful, clean, natural light. I love it.

Notice the white grout I scrubbed with peroxide and a toothbrush (the giant baby is pretty cute too). I think it's good for pregnant girls to do things on all fours to relieve back pressure (I don't really know - I'm just making stuff up). So for things like giving pony rides, picking up toys and scrubbing grout, I'm doing great.

Hudson drew this picture and wrote a story about it. The tree, flower, boy, dog, and girl standing on a ruby rock are all characters in his story titled: The Talking Dog named Bionic. :)

The Big Sister

Daddy bought Alayna a new baby in preparation for the real baby to come. This baby really drinks her bottle, really burps, then falls asleep. Non-stop fun for a little girl. :)

Her new hair-do. I told her she had such pretty piggy-tails and she ran around the house with her nose pushed up, oinking. Love it.

Deep Breaths

This morning I've had to stand up really straight and take several deep breaths. I have that feeling in my head like you get before you pass out. I get this way at the end with every baby. I CAN'T BREATHE!!! and obviously I don't stand up straight. I miss pilates.

Tuesday night in the middle of Zumba my YMCA aerobics coordinator boss found me in the midst of the 75 dancing women (I was easy to spot in my red tank top and massive belly). It's spring break and no one was available to teach the Basic Step class the next morning. So, Wednesday morning I shuttled us to the Y, checked the kids in and set up class in the gym. All the equipment for this class is on rolling carts in a closet across from the gym - roll the weights over, roll the steps over, roll the speaker system over, plug in, set up ... then two people showed up. No big deal.

Basic step is generally for people who are just getting started exercising or have illness/injuries that prevent them from working out really hard. I had one older lady who barely spoke a word, and a very talkative 40 year old lady. She asked about my pregnancy and my kids and my life and then shared about hers (all while I'm giving step cues and instructions on proper form :) ).

She shared that after two miscarriages she got pregnant with her son who is now 14 months old. When she finally got pregnant she was afraid to move. She barely did anything and gained quite a bit of weight. Now she's trying to lose the weight because she wants to have another baby. She runs a support group for women who have lost babies. I loved hearing her story and seeing how passionate she is for other women because of the pain she has experienced. All that to say, it's okay that I can't breathe. :)

Ants in your pants

Ants have invaded my bathroom like they do every year around this time. I put out the little poison squares so they'll take the poison back to they're homes and destroy themselves. Alayna's been scared to death of the "little bugs." She screams, "Little bugs get you!!!" Hopefully she won't be traumatized. I reassure her, "They're ants. They wont get you." And we watch them walk back and forth in their little line. Just fascinating. They're mostly gone now. But I did see one this morning. Alayna was with me (like she ALWAYS is) and I said, "Look, Alayna, it's a little bug." She took my face in both her hands and said, "It's a ant." Love it when the baby girl sets me straight. :)

It's starting to get nice out, and when it's nice out it's so much harder to sit down INSIDE and do school. So we set up a motivational chart for both boys. Hudson has to read 20 minutes a day and finish his other school work (handwriting/spelling and math). Pierce has to go over his flash cards (numbers and letters) and a couple of pages from his preschool workbook. If both boys get their work done without complaining for 15 days we get to go to McDonalds for a happy meal. They are so pumped! I have to remember how much easier things go around here when there is tangible motivation. I always tell the boys, if you obey your parents things will go well with you and if you don't, they wont. In this case if you obey (obedience at our house is doing what you're told, when you're told with a good attitude) you get to go to the best restaurant in the whole world (if you like feathers in your nuggets and climbing around a germ infested playground!).

I'm set on a middle name for #4 but I wont publish it until I can get the husband set on it too. He's named the boys and I've named the girls so far. No matter what she officially turns out to be, I think she'll be stuck with Ellie Peaches for a good long while.

Well, we're off to start school as I down a cup of coffee with Italian Sweet Creme coffee creamer. How can heartburn be SO bad and I still crave coffee? I think it's just survival mode at this point. Those last wonderful 6 weeks when my sleep is diminished and my trips to bathroom quadruple and people start making comments like, "Are you sure there's just one baby in there?" or my favorite, "I can always tell when mom's get close to the end because their faces get real full." Seriously?! It's no longer the "pregnancy glow." It's not the shiny hair or long strong nails or the clear beautiful skin. It's the growing belly that peeks out under the maternity shirts and the growing of yet another chin and the stretch marks that reach up to your neck. Lovely. Okay, coffee!

As promised ...

Pretty smiles...

Click HERE to hear Pierce sing verse 3 of "Amazing Love."

When they sing it together Pierce only sings a few words, so I decided to video him by himself.

The real lyrics are:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me!

--Charles Wesley

Nesting and such

Between the women's retreat, the stomach bug, and near exhaustion from growing another human being, it's been TWO WEEKS since I've updated anything. Seriously, I'm doing good to keep up with my housework. I guess my weekend away did more to set me back than I realized. Ah well. I finally feel like I'm getting on top of things around here. We're also eight weeks away from baby #4's arrival and I'm pretty sure nesting has set in. I cleaned out the boys' closet yesterday and reorganized their room. Today I did the girls' closet and got the baby clothes put away and Alayna's spring line hung up. I do love little girl clothes! I love that A wants to wear the "pitty dress" and anything with butterflies or flowers or pink! Quite a contrast to the boy who wears basketball shorts and t-shirts under his church clothes. :)

I sent the boys outside to play yesterday while Alayna napped. My instruction were, "Don't get too muddy." What can that possibly mean to a 5 and 3-year-old boy except, "Don't roll in the mud, just throw it at each other!" So much for that bath. They were absolutely filthy 5 minutes later.

Alayna is doing great in her big-girl bed. She likes to "read Jesus" then lays down and goes right to sleep with her baby tucked under her blanket. Hoping she keeps up these good sleeping habits after Adelle arrives and occupies the other bed. As her Bible story knowledge expands beyond Mary and Joseph, so do the names of her babies and Little People. At least we know she's listening and soaking it all in. Do all little girls sing at the top of their lungs? She is constantly singing her own version of lullabies and nursery rhymes.

David taught the boys a new hymn and they ask him all the time to sing, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay." The real title of the hymn is "Amazing Love." :) That's just their favorite verse. I'll have to post a video of them singing it together - it's pretty precious.

Hudson asked me the other day, "If man was created first, why is 'ladies first' the law?" He's such a thinker like his daddy. Pierce echoes, "Yeah, mom, why is wadies fust the wah?" :)

Since the closets are organized and the house is clean, I'll make it a priority tomorrow to take some picture and videos. I'm getting pretty big.