The Countdown has begun!

I am now 38.5 weeks and counting. Just TEN days until my due date (who knows how long until the *birth*.....)! This week I have been getting my wish of being able to "nest and rest" and it has been great. I have done quite a few cleaning projects and in between times when I get worn out, I have been reading lots of books to the kids and enjoying this wonderful weather we have had the past few days. We even took a bike ride to the park, with no jackets on!

So, each day I feel a little more ready and am relieved that I have gotten a few more things done. And each day the waiting gets a little bit harder, as contractions keep coming and sleeping is difficult. I did make a new best friend yesterday: TUMS! I had never taken a tum before, but it was wonderful to be able to sleep last night without feeling like vomiting, since my stomach is pretty much in my throat at this point, especially when I'm lying down.



So, since we have been pretty much hibernating this week, I dont have a ton to report, but thought I would post a few picture from last Sunday anyway. The kids are getting as excited as I am to meet their new sibling. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl! If you haven't put your vote in yet, it's not too late!































One last picture from last Saturday. We had some plans that ended up falling through and the kids were disappointed, so I decided we could at least stop and play at a McD's for a little bit. We didnt know that Ronald was about to come by for a visit! The kids had fun. :)


I'll keep you posted if we have any baby news!

Finally, some recent pictures!!

Here are some of my friends, l-r: Michelle, Candi, and Teri. My sil Amanda had a casserole shower for me nearly two weeks ago, and we had a really nice time!











Big me and more friends: Danielle and another Michelle, holding sweet John Michael. :)














Pregnant Bellies. I love taking these shots! Me at 36 weeks, Teri at 31 weeks and Amanda at 19 weeks.











Me and long time friend Kristi.


















Then last Saturday we had a hectic day! We got up early to go to my Grandpa's early Thanksgiving/ Christmas gathering, which we technically had to miss because of a wedding, but we at least wanted to go for a little bit to see some of the out-of-town family. Especially since we aren't going to trave this year, at Thanksgiving or Christmas because of the pregnancy/ baby. We had a nice short but sweet time, and left from there to go to the wedding.



Here is the happy couple! Our friend Greg, from church, went on a mission trip with out church to Argentina a little over two years ago and this was the result! He met Alejandra down there and this was the long-awaited culmination of what started then. :) Alejandra was finally able to come about a month ago, and we are enjoying getting to know her.






This past Wednesday night we had a Thanksgiving gathering with the hispanic "gang". It was a good turn-out and a good time. We had lots of food, and then I used a children's story book to tell them the story of Thanksgiving, which none of them had heard! They just thought it was turkey day. :) Fabio also shared from the Word and we had a good time singing together.







Remember Alejandra, from the wedding picture? This is her mother, Miriam, and sister, Claudia, who were able to come up for the wedding. They stayed with us for a few days this week while Greg and Alejandra are on their honeymoon, since they can't speak English and Greg's family can't speak Spanish! We really enjoyed getting to know them. They were here for both the hispanic Thanksgiving gathering, and my family's Thanksgiving the next day.




Here are a few of the kids that were at the Wednesday night gathering.
Two things about this pic:
1) See the pool that I plan to give birth in? Isn't that cool!? It's been here since Tuesday and the kids have been having a blast playing in it! (There is NO water in it yet!!!)

2) Notice my bald child?? Tuesday morning as we were trying to get out the door to Ladies' Bible study, I told Joshua to get out of the bath and get dressed. He always does that by himself. A few minutes later, I was thinking that he was taking too long, so I went to check on him. He had the tiny little scissors that I use to cut their nails and was using it to sheer himself to the bone all along his forehead! After being disciplined, he was then shorn the rest of the way, which he thought was rather traumatic. He did NOT want to be bald. After it was all over, I was trying to console him a little by telling him that at least now he looked like his Uncle Aaron and cousins. He said, "But this kind of hair only looks good on them, not on *me*!!"


Here is a picture of Dominique and Cheyenne, all gussied up! They just LOVE playing dress-up, so it made for a nice Thanksgiving afternoon activity. :) Unfortunately, my memory card was full, so I deleted a few pics to take this of the girls, but didnt get any others from Thanksgiving. The good news is that our video camera is finally working again, so at least I got some footage that way. We had a great time together!
(Scott, if you read this, could you email me your pics from this day please?)


Today I am 38 weeks pregnant, 2 weeks from my due date. Everywhere I went today I had LOTS of people comment on how "ready" I looked, that it must not be long now, and that I looked like I was about to pop. I feel like I'm about to pop! I guess there is still a shred of hope that I might not go too late this time ~ it would sure be nice ~ but I'm not getting my hopes up too much! In the meantime, I have been working on nesting projects all week, as time and energy allow. There are still a lot of things I want to get done, but each day I feel a little more ready, and if baby would oblige me by coming early, I would have NO problems not getting any more of my projects done, that's for sure!!
Oh, and I think we finally have names! We have never been secretive about names before, but since it's this close already, I think we'll just wait until baby makes his/her appearance to make the name announcement. :)

Technical Difficulties

I haven't posted for a little while due to the many technical difficulties that have arisen in our home over the past week and a half. Our computer crashed, the monitor blew, our oven broke, TWO tvs are on the blink (one blinked for the last time already), the speakers on the stereo only start working if you hit them hard, and the toaster feature no longer works on our toaster oven! All this happened this past week!!! Ugh. There must be an electronic monster in our home....

So, we lost a lot out of our computer and are having to reinstall everything all over again. We had an old monitor in storage that is so tiny that Fabio and I are both getting eyestrain using it, but at least it works for now. And, I still havent reconnected and reinstalled all the "stuff" to hook the digital camera up, so no pics for this post. Just thought I would give a little update.

Joshua got a fever during the night last night, so I barely slept since he was up a lot. He was pretty low-key today, but wanted to sit *on* me all day, so that was uncomfortable with my large abdomen, and I didnt get much done, but at least I was forced to rest that way! My big accomplishment of the day (and about the only one!) was that I finally finished getting boxes ready to send to the out-of-country fam for Christmas. :-D One to Iraq, one to Japan, one to southern Brazil and one to northern Brazil. I try to get them out early to send them surface and save on shipping. So, it was a relief to have that done.

Dominique's 2 year molars are almost done coming in! Yay! I was really hoping that she would be weaned, potty trained and done teething before the baby came and it looks like I'm going to get my wish. I wished the same thing for Joshua before Dominique was born, and I got my wish that time too. :-) She is starting to talk a lot more, finally, and it is comical to me how "girlish" she talks! Hard to explain in written form, but her tone of voice and mannerisms are definitely feminine.

Here's a funny from Joshua from today:
Joshua: Mommy, I prayed to God for wisdom and honor.
Mommy: That's a wonderful thing to pray for, Joshua. Why did you ask God for that?
Joshua: Because I want a LOT of money!
Mommy: Huh???
Joshua: Ya, Daddy read to me in the Bible that Solomon asked for wisdom and honor and God gave him lots of money too!!!

So, we had to have a little talk about the heart issues in the story and all of that deep stuff, on a four year old level. ;)


Tomorrow I am 37 weeks pregnant, three more weeks to go!!! If it weren't for all the projects I want to finish first, I would wish to have the baby NOW. I feel enormous and uncomfortable. All is well, though. All in God's good timing.

Anyone want to play a game? We played this the other night with a few friends and I think it's fun. :) Leave me a comment guessing the baby's sex, date of birth and size. I think I might give a prize to the closest winner after baby is born. :)

We still have no idea about a name for this child, either. So, feel free to leave us some suggestions, for boy or girl, as many names as you can think of. Hey, if we choose your name, maybe you can get a prize for that too!

Our Terrific Two Year Old!

Well, Dominique's birthday was October 29th, but we just had her party last night, together with my mom's, whose birthday was October 27th.
What a change two years can make in a child's life! Here is Dominique when she was 3 days old....
















And this is Dominique right around her first birthday, so excited to be walking!








And... this is Dominique last night. I made the mistake of waiting until bedtime to try to get some adorable pictures of our big girl, and here you can see how cooperative she was being! She kept saying "night-night" and pretending to be asleep! Ah, well, I guess that captures the spirit of the wonderful world of two year olds. ;)





Here are the birthday girls with their cake.


Grandma Carol and Dominique.







My sil made a child-size sling for Dominique, and she loves it! I'm sure she will even more once I am carrying this little one around in the sling. Her cousin Cheyenne brought her sling along too, so they could sling their baby dolls together. What fun!
Here are some belly shots from last night. Me and my sister-in-law Amanda. Here I am almost 36 weeks, and she is almost 19 weeks, due in April.








Finally, a family picture. It actually turned out okay, too! (After about a hundred tries, that is! All you with small children know what I'm talking about, no doubt!)


Mother and daughter.

Mother and son.


















My midwife just left from checking me. I love prenatals with her! She stays like two hours and I get to talk to her about anything and everything. I have learned so much from her. And, despite how my belly looks, it seems this baby is not all that large! Her estimate is that s/he is around 6 lbs now, so I *might* even end up having a child that is less than nine pounds! I can hardly imagine! Only time will tell, and there isnt too much time left now. I cant wait to meet this baby!

Care to Compare?

I am 35.5 weeks along now. This first picture was taken today. The second picture was taken when I was 35 weeks along with Dominique. Yes, I wore this shirt on purpose today to take this picture. ;)

So, what do you think? It's hard to tell exactly, since the pics are from different angles and stuff, but which do you think is bigger?



Personally, I think I look and feel just about the same.... which means that I am feeling quite good, but just this past week I have gotten a good deal more uncomfortable, been having a lot more contractions, baby is lower and all of that fun stuff. All is well, though. I had blood work done last week and this Friday I have my second appointment with my midwife. Just one more month til baby!!! :)

LEAVES!!!

I absolutely LOVE fall and I love to take fall pictures outside with the leaves every year.
Here are some I took of the kids today. I was trying to stage some pictures, but they all turned out badly ~ just fake looking. Then, they started throwing leaves at me and were having SO much fun doing it, yelling "Snowing, snowing!" the whole time, that I was able to get some great shots with REAL smiles! :)

The Rest of the Mexico Pics

Well, today the pics were uploading with relative ease, so here are the rest of what I'm going to post, in no particular order. First, Dominique at the market, intrigued by the baby chicks and baby ducks.











Here is Joshua. We were at a parade, and the dude on this horse noticed that I was taking a picture of him, and offered for Joshua to sit up there. They have some beautiful horses, and quite well trained. This one was walking behind a truck blowing off firecrackers and still behaved himself quite well.







Here I am with my friend Esperanza, who I travelled down there with. We spent one night with her family and it was really nice to get to meet all of them.

















Me and the kids at a restaurant. One nice thing about the restaurants there is that they all have sidewalk seating, and the weather is mostly always conducive to such an arrangement.










Dad with the kids























The kids had to get used to all different sleeping arrangements, that is for sure! The first three nights we all slept in single beds in the same room, and Dominique fell off a few times because she is used to sleeping in a crib still. Oops! Then here they slept in a double bed, with me in it too! It took them a while to fall asleep becuase they kept either playing or bothering each other, but at last they did. Other nights, Dominique slept in a double bed with me and Joshua in another one with my dad. That seemed to work out okay too. Then there was sleeping on the plane, in the car, and in my disappearing lap, which Im sure was more comfortable for Dominique than it was for me!! Routines are good for children, but I've always felt they should also learn to be flexible. :) (Especially as probable future MKs!)


Here you can see my least favorite part of the trip, which I mentioned before: the cobblestone roads. BUMPY! Not pregnant, it would have been uncomfortable, but pregnant... well, let's just say Im glad I survived!










Joshua with the children from church. He didnt seem to have any problem communicating with them.











Dad and Daughter.
This is a little off center becuase Joshua took it. :) Not bad, though.