Everybody was kung fu fighting...

Halloween was a great success this year. Honestly, I didn't get into it much this year. It is usually one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it is the pregnancy. *shrug*

As you can see the boys were all ninjas. Chase was VERY proud of the few pieces of candy he got. He kept stopping along the way and showing everyone his "'nack" as he says. I was also surprised that Austin and Brodie were pretty satisfied after only being gone about 20-30 minutes.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.

When Will Evan Make His Debut?

By popular demand I have decided to open betting on when Evan will arrive and how much you think he will weigh. To make it fair to everyone I will give you all the information I know of that might help you:

~Due Date: November 16th (as dated by ultrasound at 7 weeks)
~At my 20 week ultrasound Evan measured one week big.
~As of Monday 10/29 I am 2 centimeters dilated and about 50% effaced.
~This was a big change since I was not dilated at all 6 days prior.
~Austin was born at 37 weeks (I was induced due to pre-eclampsia) and weighed 6lbs 14 oz.
~Brodie was born 4 days after due date weighing 7lbs 10oz.
~Chase was born 3 days after due date weighing 7lbs 13 oz.
~I am now officially waddling when I do not make a conscious effort not too...I have never waddled in past pregnancies....EVER. Through this whole pregnancy I have carried Evan high....until this week.


So, what's your guess? Leave me a comment with a date and time you think Evan will be born and give a guess as to how big you think he will be.

Two is better than none...

Well, I am 2 cm dilated. Now, I was 2 cms when I was pregnant with Chase for two weeks, BUT I never went from zero to 2 in one week.

I am very excited about this.

I have more to say, but I also have a sick toddler who is requesting Mommy.

He wins over you people.

Pumpkin patch...

Just thought I would post a picture from the pumpkin patch. We had fun even if we didn't stay too long (our clan is all getting that dang cold again). As you can see Chase did NOT want to sit still for the pictures...he was way too busy!

We need a bigger bed...

The boys all love to pile into our bed and watch TV at night. I think we might need to get a bigger bed!

Negative Nancy...

That's me! I have resisted the urge to blog lately just because I am tired of my negative attitude so I know everyone else is. On to better things...

After today I will have everything ready so that if I go into labor nothing horrible will be left behind. I bought all the stuff to have my bag packed and ready to go. This I am sure will make Jason happy since I won't be telling him he brought me the wrong lotion :-) There are still minor things to work out, but Evan could come any time now. I even have my diaper bag on the way (SOOOO freaking cute) and my baby sling. Better late than never.

Speaking of...I am officially 37 weeks today...FULL TERM BABY! However, my last two boys were a few days past due date, so I am pretty much braced for 3 more weeks. Now that the weather has turned cooler it isn't so bad. If it was still in the 90s I would be even bitchier!!! I know hard to believe.

When life gets in the way...

No I have not gone into labor (as of yesterday I am 50% effaced, but no dilation yet). I did ditch out on the blog for a few days due to sick kiddos. Brodie had to be picked up from school yesterday since he was running a fever and is home again today.

I will post more later, but I did want to hop on and mention something. I am now a contributing blogger at Larger Families. It is a website with about a dozen bloggers, all with larger than normal size families. I am really excited about it. In fact, my first post is up. Run on over and check it out!

It's Official...

I am tired of being pregnant.

Now, you all know as well as I do that in a year or two I am going to be pining for the days of pregnancy and all the good stuff that goes along with it....BUT, right now I am done.

How did I reach this point? Well, you see, when BREATHING AIR gives you heartburn you have pretty much reached your breaking point. Ever since my last stomach attack I have been pretty careful about what I eat. That seems have helped the gallbladder and/or reflux thing. However, it seems to have done nothing for the heartburn. Drinking water even seems to be a culprit.

Not to mention Evan has now found the oh so fun pastimes of bladder bongos and sciatic nerve rolling.

Big Brother in the Making...

So Chase loves his new baby doll. Here he is rocking him...right before he tossed him to the ground.

I never said it wasn't still a work in progress...

I really need to stop...

I was once again going through some pictures today.....and well.

LOST IT! Snot running BAWLING!

This picture was taken the day Brodie was born...

Austin was so smitten with his little brother from the moment he crawled up on my bed to see him. We sometimes call Austin "little mother hen" because he is always worried about his brothers...to the point of smothering them. Though he and Brodie fight a lot, they are still best buds.

I need to go get more tissues now.

*I just saw the difference in Austin in this picture and in the one from the last post...it did not help the snot situation any*

Should have been an 80's child...

This child is obsessed with hairspray. I can not explain this as hairspray is one of the few hair and body products that I am not fond of and rarely use. I have some for emergencies. Austin has taken over control of doing his hair for school. It has to pass my inspection, but I let him do it. We have always used gel on his hair. The poor child has the most obstinate cowlick. I noticed over the last few weeks that his hair has been getting increasingly "sticky" when he is done doing his hair. I finally figured out why. He decided to use hairspray on his wet hair instead of gel. Given that he is 7 and his arms aren't exactly long you can imagine how well distributed the hairspray is. The word globs comes to mind. I have banned him from hairspray and told him he must use gel. So imagine my surprise when I hear "sprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrshhhhhhhhhhhh" coming from my bathroom this morning.

Austin's defense of his use of hairspray: "I used gel first, Mom, but it just didn't make it shiny enough".

Yeah...

Confessions...

I would be a complete liar if I said that I wasn't nervous about adding this new baby to the mix. Not petrified nervous, but nervous nonetheless.

Most of my nerves just come from realizing that unlike when Chase was a baby I won't be able to really nap much with this baby. Chase is slowly showing signs that he is ready to move from two naps a day to one, which will only add to the challenge of finding time to rest. Not to mention that I worry about having enough time for Austin and Brodie. While I am a laid back mom and I know things will work into their own rhythm, I am just beginning to feel the nervousness of what the first few months hold. Chase is only going to be 18 months old when Evan is born. Chase has always been a pretty crazy child. You have to watch him like a hawk and he is very jealous of his Mommy's time. However, he is also a very sweet child and loves to look at babies when we are out and about. I am seriously considering buying him a baby doll so that he can take care of it while I am taking care of Evan. Just don't tell Jason.

That all being said....I can't wait!

Animal House...

(Mojo and Cloe)

Anyone who reads my blog knows that our house is crazy just due to my having three active boys and a hilarious husband. We also have four animals, two dogs and two cats. So yea, it is a little nutty around here. I took this picture last night because I am always posting pictures of my kids on the blog, but really the animals are our kids too. I have rarely come across more spoiled animals in my life...OK other than my mom's dogs. Jason and I both have to fight the urge to have more animals. We want another dog so badly we can hardly stand it. If I wasn't due with Evan in 4 1/2 weeks I guarantee you that we would get a dog in the next month. Since we don't think it would be wise to try to house train a new puppy and deal with adding another child to the mix at the same time we have been setting up our saltwater aquarium. The process for it started about a month ago. Saltwater is harder to set up than fresh water just because you have to let everything sit and get just right before you can add fish. Well, we have added fish. I will try to get a picture tomorrow, but they are still being really shy. They are our tester fishes. Hopefully they will live while Jason is gone for the next few days. I already have 7 mouths to feed on a daily basis (not including Jason), hopefully our three new fish and the new crab will not be forgotten.

Special...

Everyone say HI to Shana. She is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I thought it was so good of her (YES, Shana even if your hair is curly). The girl is always on the phone. It works!

Today Shana got together a few of our friends for a small baby shower lunch for me. It was lovely and perfect since I did not want a full blown shower this time around. And really, we need to do girl lunches a little more often anyway. Jason's favorite gift we got was a tiny little Texas Tech hat. He was so excited...thanks Amanda.

Blog Material Falls From the Monkey Bars...

Look closely at Brodie's shirt. Do you see the sticker? Sometimes blog material just comes to you. I got a call yesterday just before noon from Brodie's school saying he bumped his head. Due to schools being crazy afraid of being sued by crazy people they call if they even THINK a kid bumped his head. They iced it, he was fine. Not even a bump really.

When he walked out of school wearing that sticker I laughed so hard. I think I actually said out loud, "BLOG MATERIAL!"

So how did it happen? Anyone who knows Brodie knows that he isn't always the most graceful child. He is the king of running into things. Well, at recess he was hanging upside down on the monkey bars and when he tried to reach up to get off he slipped and fell. While that image alone in my head makes me laugh, as he is telling me about it he had to act it out. Made my day. (Does it make me a bad mom that I laugh about stuff like this?)

Who knew that monkey bars could provide parents so much entertainment?

She's doing the "ugly cry"...

I was cleaning out one of my photo accounts online and found this picture. This was taken on Austin's first day of Kindergarten. DO YOU SEE HOW LITTLE THEY ARE?!?!?!

It is a cry-fest over here now.

LaShawn day...not a total bust.

So, today was supposed to be LaShawn Day. Turns out only part of it was. I woke up this morning completely out of it due to being up all night coughing. After taking the boys to school I came home did some emailing and went back to bed. I watched the news from bed a bit and talked to Jason on his way to yet another airport and then decided I needed a good nap.

Skip to when I woke up at 11:00. By the time I got up and got awake my day was half over. I took a shower and again got sucked into computer related things. I didn't leave the house until after 1:00. So I stopped and ate a sandwich and then went to the bookstore. The bookstore was lovely. I love bookstores and can spend an insane amount of time walking through them if I am alone. I grabbed some Starbucks on my way out. I had about 45 minutes once done there before I had to get the boys. Not enough time for my planned pedicure so I ran to Walmart to get some things for supper. Now, grocery shopping should not be allowed on LaShawn Day, but oh well. Then I got the boys.

SOOOOO...LaShawn Day is extended into tomorrow. In the morning Aunt Kree and I are going to go get pedicures. And since I am feeling lovey towards myself I am going to throw in a manicure too.


*I couldn't help but do a Halloween header*

I declare a LaShawn Day...

Tomorrow, Ocotber 10th, is officially LaShawn Day around here.

Jason is out of town...Chase is out of town...the boys are in school. Why am I not doing something nice for myself?

At first, my plans for tomorrow were to clean house a bit and work on the kids rooms. Then I realized...I need to do something nice for JUST ME. I originally said I was going to have a "Mommy" Day. But the thing is that is what I am going to be rebelling against. I am always being MOMMY. Tomorrow, from the hours of 8am until 3pm I am going to be LaShawn. I am going to go to the bookstore and I might even get a pedicure. I am going to sit outside Starbucks and read the paper.

The point being...I am going to spend the day with myself and I am not going to once feel guilty that I have laundry sitting at home.

Not exactly the Smurfs...

Jason and I took Austin and Brodie to see The Blue Man Group last night. We had so much fun. The show was especially good because it has obvious kid appeal...music, lights, drums, silly guys painted blue...BUT it also has great jokes and social commentary that are fun for the adults. The boys kept telling Jason thank you for getting the tickets. It was a really fun "big boy" night. **Just as a side note...Mike Relm, who opened for the group was amazing and fun to watch...check out his MySpace here**

This week is going to be an odd one. Chase is gone to Lubbock to visit for a week and half and Jason is out of town for work until late Thursday night. It is just the big boys and mom this week. Since the boys were out of school today we did some shopping and hanging out. I am trying to think of things to do this week that they normally don't get to do because of little brother. I think later in the week or early next week we are going to go to this cool pottery painting place. FUN STUFF!

It starts today...

Much like a diet today starts a challenge. Shana and I have been talking about how we are not good bloggers lately. So starting today for the REST OF OCTOBER (did you hear that Shana?) I will be posting everyday and I also will have a new picture everyday. We did this back in November and it was good. So.....

Here we go. (this post does not count as my one for the day)

34 Weeks...

I will be 34 weeks tomorrow. My how time is flying. This is a FLATTERING picture because my stomach is HUGE right now. I don't know how it is going to get bigger for 6 more weeks!!!

I am lucky...

I have a VERY wonderful husband. I feel like I have been hard on him lately, just due to being pregnant and tired. So, I am here to say, I know how very lucky I am. Jason is a WONDERFUL father and husband.

That is all...