Almost 8

My oldest turns 8 in four and half weeks.  In our church 8 is a huge deal! He gets baptized in 6 weeks.  I told my husband I wanted to pay a friend to take pictures of him, my husband said why don't I take pictures of him.  Good point.  So you know, these might be only semi-professional, but good enough for the girl my husband dates.

 He finished reading the whole Book of Mormon before Christmas, we are very proud of him, he is working on memorizing the 13th Article of Faith, he has finished the other 12.

 He is so old and helpful these days, it seems like so long ago he was just a little guy. He is an awesome big brother to all his siblings and so patient with them, much more patient then his mom. He is truly his little brother and little sister's best friend, he is so nice to them.

 We are late bloomers, and he didn't get his baby teeth until he was 14 months old, so he hasn't lost any baby teeth yet. At least is grown up teeth will be real healthy, according to the dentist.

Lastly, here is a picture of him on the day he was blessed. The 8 years have past so quick and so slow all at the same time.

37 Weeks

Last sunday, January 12th 2014, I was 37 weeks.  I wanted a picture of me 9 months pregnant with my toddler.  He has spent so much of his life trying to cuddle with his mom around her belly, it needed to be documented.  

18 month olds are my favorite age, I'm actually worried, I won't care about my infant, because I'll be too infatuated with my young toddler. Infants are not really my favorite age.

 Then of course my 5 year old wanted to join the photo action. Our outfits match, I'm not sure if she does it on purpose or not, but we spend about half our life in matching outfits.

I'm pretty small this pregnancy, I'm small all my pregnancies, but this one smaller.  Nat's and this one I was by far the smallest.  My first pregnancy I got all bloated the last few weeks, and then Mr. A, he was just a huge baby.  But I've still gained 40 lbs with all my boys, so who knows why I look small this pregnancy.  (I only gained 30 with my daughter, it was a hard pregnancy so I don't think it was as healthy actually which is why I didn't gain as much.)

Young

Oh my husband and I use to be so young!  We still are young, but not as young, now I feel like society deems us old enough to be respectable young parents.  When our oldest was a toddler, not so much.  

I use to worry that we were much too young to be parents, mostly because everyone told us we were too young. I worried when our kids moved out we would be too young to be empty nesters.  Now like I said we are at much more respectable ages, 29 and 31 are much more respectable ages to have printed on a birth certificate.  Society still deems us as young parents. But the worry is gone, I love it now, I look back at the pictures and we were so young. I love it.  We've grown up together, I can't even fathom any dreams or plans I would have in life without my husband. We go on adventures with our children, instead of putting off children for adventures.  Hopefully we are fun parents, we'll be young grandparents, we'll be like my grandparents and be great grandparents. We never became spoiled adults, because we always had to pay for tuition, food and baby clothes.  Last pregnancy I was sad that I would never have a fancy baby nursery, now I kind of take it as a badge of honor.  Babies don't really need all that stuff anyway.  We are no longer poor, but we spent years broke in school, so our perspective and wants are different, like I said we grew up together.

Less than 2 weeks

Monday morning I woke up panicked.  I told my husband I was not ready for this baby to come out.  In a retelling of the story to a friend, she wanted clarification, I am totally ready to have this fourth/sixth human being in my house and family, I am not ready to do everything that must be done once I check in the hospital.  Ahh!  birthing babies!  Horror upon Horror.  At about this moment I would rather potty train. (Come 8 months from now, I might sing a different tune.)
Anyway, monday monring I panicked. So when I saw my doctor later on, and he asked if I wanted to be checked I said no.  I didn't know what would be worse, to hear I hadn't made any progress or that I had.  (I made no progress until 39 weeks with my first two.) I decided I would rather not know.  My babysitter while I'm in the hospital is leaving town for a week.  Until today, I thought sure this baby COULD come early, but now it is not allowed, he is going to have to wait until the 29th.  I guess anytime after the 27th.  (yes, I have backups, but life would just be easier with the plan.)
Overall I still feel panicked, but not as bad.  Other than packed bags we are getting close to ready.  The toddler is in with the 5 year, so he doesn't associate the infant with not being with the 7 year old.  The first morning I could tell he missed his brother, he had to go check on him.  But since then its been a party in big sister's room.  Yes, I have a boy and a girl sharing a room.  I'm totally ok with this.  When I was real small I shared with my sister, but then for a few years I shared with my little brother, I think until I was almost 9.  Its been good for my daughter over the past few days, learning to share her room.  She is really learning how to be "the big sister", she is earning the title instead of just breathing.
I should mention, I'm loving her at 5.  Every few days she decides to impress us on how big she is, and do a chore or task without crying.  Its amazing to have her try to go all day without crying.  Its been a long 5 years.  I'm actually quite surprised, my oldest exasperated me until he was 6.  So when she turned 5, I thought only one more year until she starts acting like a human. I'm just loving this new big kid.  She has really struggled during this pregnancy of mine, in ways she never did during my third.  We've had some regressions, and other trials, so I'm excited that she is now trying so hard at being big. She even told her dad she was going to give him her thumb sucking blanket.  She has since backed down, but she is making progress, and it might be gone soon!

A date

My baby is coming in 24 days or less. I'm really uncomfortable. Like, I can barely bend over, and have constant braxton hicks. The baby feels like he is dropping all day and night  It takes a lot for my body to go into labor, so I'm assuming it's going to be a long 24 days. I still have a few crafts I want to finish so I guess I can wait.

Home for Christmas

You see my daughter in that dress, that is the christmas dress I wore one year when I was little.  My mom brought out the dress and she loves it.
We have almost lived here for three years, this is our third December.  Every december my kids get out for school the Thursday before Christmas.  Every Friday before Christmas, I work busy busy busy to get ready to leave bright and early in the morning on Saturday for christmas with the family.  And by bright I mean dark for two hours.  Except for the first year when a storm was coming, so we left Thursday after half day kindergarten. This my first lazy Friday before Christmas in this house.  It was thrilling.  We cleaned, we screen timed, we played, we wrapped presents, etc Three out of the five of us stayed in pajamas all day.  (Brent went to work)
Anyway, so... it has been 7 years since we have spent christmas eve in our own beds.  Its all very exciting to know we aren't leaving for Christmas. Although sometimes nerve wracking, we have never spent christmas alone! But I have no desire to sit in the car for 9-13 hours.  Seven years ago, the last time we slept in our bed for Christmas eve, our 10 month old went to bed at 6pm on Christmas eve.  Brent and I spent the rest of the evening with his family, his parents had just gotten off an 18 month mission for our Church in Toronto.  Everyone dressed up for the nativity, honestly it was my first memory of every seeing anyone dress up for the nativity.  I'm one of the younger siblings and cousins so I have no memory of doing it as a child. (Apparently Brent was a wiseman who brought root beer to the baby.)

   Then the next morning we woke up when the baby woke up.  We gave him some awesome presents, since we had barely any money. Which we had been storing wrapped in the fireplace for some reason, I don't know why Brent decided it.

  My husband gave me the movie Sphere.  I learned I hated that movie, and refused to finish watching it, while my husband did not refuse.  He also made potatoes for his family Christmas dinner.  Awesome memories huh?

Since we are having memories, lets continue
Last year we went to Utah, that was 2012

 Third Baby's First Christmas.  He and great grandma were fast friends.

The previous year we went to Texas, 2011

(Where my 4 year old nephew decided he wanted to be the baby Jesus. I'm so glad for pictures, it was super hysterical.)

The year before that we were in Seattle.  2010

My maternal grandma lives in that area.

Before that we were in Texas again.  2009
Look how little they all were.

Especially my daughter, who is now 5!

Oh the year before that was the year my daughter was born and two weeks old.  So we did spend that year at our house, but some of my family came to visit, two of my brother, my sister, my parents and their respective families.  (My daughter's stocking fit on her head, as her Aunt Teresa so kindly pointed out.) 2008

The year before that we spent it at my in laws.  2007

Remember 2006, is the whole point of the post, that we have only spent two christmases at home. This will be our third, and our first without family.

8 years ago we spent it with my brother, his wife and toddler. It was our first christmas married, and I was 8 months pregnant.  (Yes, this is a terribly unflattering picture of me, just keeping it real.) 2005

And 9 years ago, we were in Texas, a week before we got married.  2004

Nine years ago most people had huge boxy tvs with small screens.  My husband and I were quite young, but looked even younger.

Its December

Its December, and it has been that way for 20 days.  Have you been busy like me.  My daughter has, she has hit up every santa she can find to tell she them she wants a green boy bike.  Ok, she doesn't say all that, but the bike she wants is too big for her, a boy bike and green, I'm not sure why she got obsessed with it.  She isn't getting a bike for christmas. 

First we found santa at Home Depot. This is actually my favorite picture.  

(My seven year old won't go near Santa.)

 Even though baby is blurry this is my favorite picture of the month.  He has since learned how to rip ornaments off, and turn on and off the lights.  I guess he isn't a baby, he is my 16 month old toddler.

 Then we found Santa with Mrs. Claus at church.  This Santa actually distributes presents to poor kids on a firetruck, pretty cool in my opinion.

So the other day we also saw Santa at Bass Pro Shops, and I have the copy that Bass Pro Shops gave us, but I didn't bother taking a picture.  How many does one child need?  She knows they are pretend santas and will tell you that, but that doesn't stop her need to see them all.  I wasn't too impressed with Bass Pro Shops santa, which was annoying because they actually wanted money for seeing santa (buying pictures).