Earlier Than Expected

After much frustration with the military hospital and doctors, today we made some progress. Throughout this pregnancy we have been worried about how big Brenna will be especially after already delivering a nine and a half pound baby boy less than two years ago. Not really an experience I want to repeat. The doctor has been insisting if the baby is that big that it will mean a C-section, which I want to avoid at all costs. Last week the doctor finally agreed to an ultrasound on the 7th of May to see how big Brenna is than we will decide from there when to induce, etc. especially if she is big already.

Well, Brenna Nicole Grace has decided that she is ready to meet her family and come a little earlier than expected (not that Mom is complaining). I have been in a lot of pain over the weekend making it hard to even sit down or get comfortable. I told the doctor that today at my appointment. All the pain over the past four days is worth it though...My body has started to dilate and get ready for labor. Yeah!! The doctor finally decided to schedule me to be induced on May 9th. But he doesn't think I will make it through the weekend let alone into next week and not go into labor. Oh darn!

So either way, Brenna is coming early, either this week or next Friday she will be here. As you can imagine this has put Matt and I into a bit of a scramble as we are forced to settle plans and make sure we have everything we need for the baby. I plan on working right up until labor which will make the time go by quickly I hope. I am trying to get my alternate teachers lined up so that if I do go into labor this week I have all my classes covered. So we appreciate all your prayers as we anticipate Brenna's arrival and that her introduction to her brother and sister will go smoothly too!!

Life Can Be Exhausting When You are 21 Months Old

Aidan has always been a very busy kid. Going, going, going, constantly! Lately his sleep schedule has been thrown off and it has made running at full-throttle a bit harder for him. Yesterday he got to sleep in with Dad which means he didn't have a nap (which has done wonders for his patience level as you can imagine). After playing hard all day which included playing outside in his new playhouse with Nana, he was exhausted but not quite ready to give in. So this is how I found him instead.



That's right he is sound asleep, right through dinner. Those of you who have seen Aidan pack away his food, know how tired he must of been. It is not often he will skip a meal. Boy, playing is such hard work!

Spring Projects

We are back to clouds and rain for the rest of the week after one day of 70 degrees. Ahh the joys of living in Washington state. We took advantage of the glorious sunshine on Saturday and put together the kids' brand new playhouse. What a chore that was. We thought it would take an hour or two at the most. Instead, five hours later we were still building and ready give up. This house came with so many little add-ons like a chimney, two stools, a shelf on the inside and outside, a mailbox, a toy box and a large bench for outside, just to name a few. We are almost done except for a few little things. We will finish the little things inside for now and than once the rain lets up than we can figure out exactly where to put it in the backyard.





Today was cool but other than rain this morning it was just very cloudy. So we decided to tackle the front yard. Unfortunately between school, work, two active kids and a pregnancy our front yard was getting sadly neglected. So I purchased some geraniums (very hardy plants and hard for me to kill) and some pansies for our front flower boxes. Chloe helped me plant them. She was very excited to get to dig in the dirt and plant flowers. She loves to garden except for the bugs. Matt swept up all the old, dead pine needles from this past winter and we put the flower boxes in place. We still have a long way to go before our front yard looks like we want it to but at least we made a dent.

We have so many projects going on over the next few months before Brenna takes up even more of our time and Matt leaves. Next weekend I will plant flowers in our hanging baskets and possibly our window boxes out front. We are also planning to build a front walkway using pavers (we have about a hundred left over from the previous owners) to avoid tracking mud into the house during the winter.

Our biggest undertaking in our outside makeover is the Mammoth playset going up in the backyard. Click on the link to see the set we are installing (although we got a better deal than they are offering online). I picked up the four big boxes for the set this afternoon (I love having a Suburban!). Chloe was so excited when she saw the picture on the boxes sitting in the family room she immediately ran through the house screaming. Aidan was happy to join in the excitement although he had no idea why he was screaming. So hopefully, if the weather cooperates we will be able to begin putting up the playset next weekend. I will post more pictures as we start construction.

When is Brenna Going to be Born?

I just added a fun poll to the sidebar of the blog. When do you think Brenna is going to join us? Four weeks early? Two weeks early? Right on time or two weeks late? Vote for which date you think is the closest. We will see who guessed right when Brenna decides to meet the world.

Carseat Drama!

One would never think that it would be so hard to find an infant car seat, right? Wrong! I started looking online at various car seats and finally narrowed it down to the one I wanted. It is a great model with a great safety record and I loved the pattern (chocolate, turquoise and a print with fun brown and turquoise circles) and it matched the diaper bag perfectly, what could be better? The Navy Exchange had the car seat back in February so I went down to get it. They didn't have any and couldn't order anymore. Talk about major disappointment. So back online. The only places that sold that model wanted $150 for it (plus tax and shipping) WAY out of my budget.

So I find a cheaper car seat at Wal-Mart.com (got to love free site-to-store shipping). It was pink and brown (once Matt said I could buy a pink car seat I was set) and kind of cute plus it was on sale. Bonus! So after I got paid last night, this morning I went to order the car seat. Wouldn't you know it? "Out of Stock Online!" AAAGGHHH! All I was looking for was a car seat, why is it so difficult!! So at the last minute I decided to go back to the Exchange and grab the one car seat they had there (not my favorite print but at this point I was beyond caring).

So when the sales associate went to the back to look for the car seat I showed her the stroller that matched the original print I wanted. Figuring it was a long shot I asked her to keep her eyes peeled for that pattern while she was looking. So she left and came back two minutes later empty handed. You can imagine my frustration because I was sure they were out of car seats too. After all, everyone else was! But she couldn't remember what number I wanted because she found two identical car seat boxes with two different item numbers. After convincing her to bring out both so I could look at the patterns, she went back and came out with the car seat I had wanted all along!!!!!! I wanted to jump for joy!



So now I have my car seat which I LOVE! I never thought buying a car seat could be a lesson in patience but it was. I guess God was trying to show me that I need to take the little things in my life to Him just as much as the big things! He has been so faithful as we prepare for the baby! I just have to buy the playpen (which matches the car seat of course) and we will be almost set (except for all those little things that pop up). But ready or not, Brenna will be here before we know it!!