Oh Baby

Here I am at 38 weeks.....I can't believe I'm putting this picture on the internet! But with this being our last baby and this pregnancy SO different than the other two, I wanted to put it in my journal. I cannot believe how slowly the last 9 months have gone especially this last month, yet when I think about being so sick and having a picc line, that seemed like a lifetime ago. 

I am not a person who endures physical challenges well. At all. It's hard for me to see the end result-a precious baby boy-all I can see and feel are the pains and discomforts that never go away. The pain in my legs and back have been so severe this past week that it's really, really hard to walk. I feel a lot of guilt as a mom. For example, Kimball and Cora wanted to put on a magic show for me so they set everything up in their room and Kimball brought in a stool for me to sit on because he knew I couldn't sit on the floor. So sweet and cute. I had to make demands, the stool wasn't good enough because I knew it'd hurt too much so I made him get me a kitchen chair instead. The usual pleadings of, "Mom, can you jump on the trampoline with us? Can you push me on the swing? Can we go on a walk? Can you help me dig here?" have stopped altogether with little tiny broken hearts and all I'm asked now is, "Mom, can you watch me jump?" All they ask is that I watch, that's it. And it crushes my heart! 

I keep promising that one day I'll be able to run and jump and wrestle on the floor and have tickle wars again. One day I'll be healthy enough again to go on walks and dig for bugs and other treasures in the dirt. And most importantly, one day they'll have a baby brother to kiss and cuddle and love on! One day this baby will bring so much happiness and love that when he finally comes hopefully all of the missed adventures will be worth it. They'll finally have another comrade and buddy to share those adventures with. I hope Kimball and Cora won't remember these 9 months as a time when mommy simply couldn't because what they don't know is how much my heart yearns that I could! 

Kids are so loving and forgiving and resilient and I hope they can forgive me and realize that it's certainly a family effort to bring a baby into this world. Lance has taken the front of it all in stride and patience, I know it's been really hard for him too. He's taken on my many hats as well when I didn't and couldn't measure up, without complaint. A few years ago for Mother's Day  he gave me a framed picture of the kids with the quote, "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." and I can't wait to add a third picture to it. Certainly all of us have sacrificed and we are all anxiously awaiting this little guy's arrival. 

So, baby boy, please hurry up! We all can't wait to meet you and love on you and get a fresh piece of heaven. This morning as the kids were waking up the first thing I heard through the baby monitor was this high pitched super excited voice, "Cora, do you know what day it is?! It's Sunday! That means only 1 more Sunday until the baby comes!!" That warmed my heart hearing how much they already love this baby and how much we are all anticipating the big day. So....9 more days!!! And baby boy, you are so SO loved!!

Tacoma or Bust

This past week started a bit nerve racking as I anticipated Lance being gone to Tacoma for 5 days for work. I was too afraid I'd go into labor or something would happen and I'd have this baby without him. I'm sure most 38 week pregnant women would be a bit upset with their husbands for planning a trip so close to a due date but I knew he needed to make this trip and Heavenly Father watched over us and we survived without incident. Here are a few pictures of our activities while he was away.

Lance's trip was a complete success! He's been aiming to expand the business into the Seattle area, there's a third party removal company that all of the funeral homes use and they're huge doing about 600 calls a month, and nobody likes them. So Lance thought it was a good opportunity to see what business he could drum up and is shooting for a start date of May 1, which is tomorrow. The location changed to Tacoma, about 40 minutes south of Seattle, because there was a much greater interest there rather than be centered in Seattle and being stuck in traffic. He has an employee here that wanted to move to the Tacoma area to be a bit closer to family, so last week he moved and is going to be the manager for us.

In preparation for the week Lance bought a van for Tacoma and set up meetings with 9 funeral homes; the SCI care center in Seattle (22 funeral homes), SCI care center in Puyallup, and I believe the rest are in Puyallup and Tacoma. Daniel and Lance spent 3 days meeting with the funeral homes and every single one of them are on board and ready to use Lance. The funeral homes all hate this third party removal company so much that Lance didn't even have to do a sales pitch, they all asked when they can start using him. He wasn't expecting things to go that well so he bought another van and then found some employees before coming back home.

It was all such a whirlwind, I think Lance is still trying to figure out what just happened. He's worried and stressed and is making such a big gamble with this one but I know the Lord will guide him and we're crossing our fingers this will work out!

Creativity At It's Finest

Last week as I got up for the day and came downstairs, I found that the kids already had this "race track" built in the kitchen. I'm not sure where Lance got this uber thick cardboard tube but the kids set it up and were racing their cars through the tube into various containers of water. Water was everywhere despite the towels but they sure had a good time with it! They played with it for a good three days and after that I wanted my kitchen back, haha.

 

Happy Easter!

I absolutely love spring time, when the air is crisp and fresh and everything starts to come back to life bringing beauty back to the earth and a promise of hope.

 

My Easter babies! Sure do love them to bits!!!

He Makes Me Laugh

Random Photos

These two really are the best of friends!

When Lance went in to check on the kids for the night he found Cora asleep like this - on top of the big tote that holds the farm toys. That can't be comfortable. No pillow but somehow she managed to get Kimball's sleeping bad on top of her.

Beautiful bright rainbow! We've had so much rain since all the snow melted, I think April has been a record month of rainfall. We are certainly ready for some sunshine and warmth after an unusually wet winter and spring!

 Playing with Poky

Spring Break

Nobody was more excited for spring break this year than me, I was SO looking forward to no preschool or therapy for a whole week! Sometimes it feels nice to just stay home.

The kids wanted to sleep in their sleeping bags on the floor and actually did quite well for the first three nights.

For some reason we had a bunch of boxes all at once so we made little houses, even ones for the stuffed animals to live in.

 On this day we made caterpillars out of clothes pins and pom poms.

This day we went to the Museum of Art and Culture, which we didn't even know existed! The exhibit was all about woolly mammoths and a few other animals from the Ice Age and Kimball was really disappointed he didn't get to see Sid, haha. After that we ate Frank's Diner which is an old rail car that was restored and turned into a restaurant. It was SO nice to spend this day together as a family!!

We had a play date with our old friends whom we hadn't seen for a few months. These are the girls all born in 2013, Chris had to get a picture of course.

Kimball and Lance took a little man trip to a bike swap. Kimball absolutely couldn't wait because Daddy promised him they could ride bikes together on the real road verses just the driveway but now they can since Dad found a bike to ride. If only it would stop raining long enough to ride......Next to the bike swap was a little car show that they were also able to go to.

Registering For Kindergarten

And he's not at all excited.