Day 1. IPhone style

Happy birthday, baby delaney

I am in heaven.

ha ha

remember that time, 20 days ago, when i said i had 10 more days?! silly!

also, where has the baby in my ticker gone? my friend lisa pointed out that the baby has disappeared. what, 41 weeks and 3 days isn't normal? whatevs.

this and that

thursday night was another wrestling night. lexi borrowed my phone because she "had" to take a picture. it's cute at least. :) i skipped the wrestling match because a) i had felt crampy all day, b) dinner wasn't ready, and c) the last match i went to lasted 2 1/2 hours. this one only lasted a little over an hour, oh well.

since thursday was the never ending day and friday was supposed to be rainy, i made plans to stay in all day.

at one point things got really quiet and i was pretty sure there was no good going on. but sometimes those 15 minutes of quiet is really worth the mess.

here is the mess:

lipstick.

lipstick was also applied to the window, bathtub, and table in her room.

she helped me clean up and all was well.

and i still think it might have been worth it.

another reason for staying in on friday is that i really thought it would be baby day.

 see, my little girls are birthday thief's. addie was born on lexi's 12th birthday (and 10 days overdue), and frankie was born on sister amy's birthday (and 11 days overdue). so friday would have been my grandpa seagrove's 90th birthday, and i just thought for sure that was our day. and we were 8 days overdue. we had a nice, lazy day. both the little girls actually napped, which was nice. right around 3, as christian had left to play basketball and the girls were napping and i was realizing that nothing was happening, i started to get a little stir crazy/depressed. no problem, i called matt, told him i needed some "me time" for a pedi and he said no problem. :)

sarah met up with me and we had a wonderful, very pregnant duo pedi.

(i had gotten a wonderful pedicure the day before addie was born, so i guess i think somehow that might work again. this time i'm 0-2. :( )

the rest of friday night was spent getting christian to basketball practice and visiting with matt, alexis, and the twins. it was nice.

(the twins and lexi also went for a walk with me, went to eat dinner, and did the "cinnamon challenge." if i ever figure out how to do video again i'll upload the video of them. in lexi's words "we threw up like 10 times! it was soooo fun!" we all love our twins.)

on saturday morning i woke up to this:

my wonderful hubby hard at work mopping the floors. he's a keeper. the little girls slept in till 9! that never happens except when daddy is home and awake and ready to take care of them when they wake up.

i went to a fun baby shower for 3 of the other preggy ladies at church.

i got home, put babies down, helped matt put the house back together after mopping (he's good at getting things done, not the best at putting things back together, that's okay, we're a team!), and watched some lifetime movies with lex.

she's got the boy troubles. but she actually talked to me about it and we had a great day.

christian had a basketball game at 4:30. addie has been my game day buddy, so she came with me to get him there early and we watched some of neighbor david's game while we waited. she had fun climbing all over everything. matt and frankie met up with us later.

the rockets played hard and it was a really good game! unfortunately they lost by one point, but it was such a good, well matched and well played game that i thought it was okay. now they are 3-1.

(that means won 3, lost 1, right?)

christian is the blur with the ball.

(i keep forgetting to take my real camera, so these are iphone pics)

after the game we came home and whipped up some baked potato's and all the fixins' and headed over to mccombs for some yummy bbq chicken. after dinner we watched "i don't know how she does it," which was cute.

while there, my friend amy texted that she had a treat for me, so she came over and brought her "labor inducing peanut butter cookies." she says they worked twice for her pokey babies. they are delicious and i've eaten almost the whole plate, so we shall see...

after the movie we read scriptures with mccombs, came home and put 2 very tired girls (and 2 very tired big kids!) to bed (it was after 11), and collapsed into bed ourselves.  i woke up at 5 and now am blogging. for the record can i just say, i love the oprah winfrey network?! dr phil at 5 am?

 yes, please. :)

the never ending day...

on wednesday we met up with mindy and izzy at mcdonalds for some playtime and mommy/mindy time. it was so nice to visit with her as she's getting ready to move. ): we got home with just enough time to get girls down to nap, chris got home, i got more paperworky things done (never ending!), matt got home early, and then mindy showed up. i had forgotten that we were going walking while her boys were at piano. matt kept the girls (nice surprise to have him home early!) and made dinner while mindy and i power walked our neighborhood. i had been crampy since tuesday's power walk with lex. crampy, crampy, crampy, but nothing else.

then the big kids (including addie) and matt were off to church and frankie and i hung out just the two of us. 

yesterday was a long day.

i went grocery shopping for the last time, again.

this is actually probably the 5th or 6th "last time to grocery shop before baby" we've done.

the good news is that we're building up our food storage!

i also didn't sleep well the night before. i was up from 3-5, up with kids/matt at 6, back to bed and up at 7:30 with addie. doesn't make for a restful night.

we dropped addie off at preschool and franks and i headed out. she's been my little buddy lately, for some reason i've had several opportunities to spend time alone with her and it has been so fun! i got a little teary yesterday, walking up to the store holding only her hand and thinking i wouldn't be able to do this again. at least not for awhile and not very often. i love being able to focus on one child at a time, even if it's while running errands.

i had asked sarah if addie could stay after preschool and play for awhile and she said yes, so we made a real errand running trip out of it. we stopped by marshalls (love that store but it can be super dangerous!) to use a gift card. we got a super soft baby blanket amd new rain coat and socks for addie. now frankie can inherit her old one and boots, and addie just needs boots. i don't know why, but i love rain gear!

next we stopped by kohls to make a return. i had gotten a $10 coupon, but it wasn't supposed to be good till sunday. kohls is very customer oriented, so i decided to play the pregnancy card and see if i could use it early and they let me. (: i got matt his christmas slippers (i had gotten them from marshalls for christmas but wrong size, hence the marshalls gift card), a "big sis" shirt and "i love daddy" shirt for franks.

kohls has a cute "family bathroom" with a mini potty. i love those cute mini potties! frankie asked to go, sat for awhile and pushed like she was trying, but still nothing. that's okay, we'll keep trying.
(she also wore her crown, mostly upside down, the whole day. i love that girl!!!)

then we walked over to dicks to straighten out a dicks points discrepancy. at that point i was already pooped. and we still had to hit the commissary, the real reason we were shopping at all. a quick stop at mcdonalds for some sustenance before the comm, and we were off.
and yes, for those counting, that's 3 days in a row of mcdonalds food.
don't judge, i'm a million months pregnant and it's so convenient!

anyhow, the commissary always takes forever. i tried to hurry, because by that point preschool was over and i felt bad leaving addie for too long. but i use coupons and... i'm just slow lately. we had been walking for hours and i was crampy again. frankie was so, so good the whole trip though.

we picked up addie and visited with sarah and abby for awhile. got him with just enough time to get girls down before chris got home. then i still had to put groceries away.

fiasco time, i opened the trunk and my huge jar of pickles fell and broke. in a genius move, i opened the garage door, which then got stuck on the trunk of the truck and was still trying to go up. i called frantically for chris and i don't think there was any damage (or at least not much). chris helped with a bucket of water so our garage doesn't smell sour and we got all the groceries unloaded.

i so wanted to have dinner ready for lex before she had to go cheer for wrestling at 6, but i was soooo tired! she snacked and seemed fine, matt took the girls for a walk, i took her to the school and then stopped by food lion for some veggies i had forgotten. at that point i felt like this day would never end. i was tired, uncomfortable, and grumpy because i hadn't slept well. that's one of my least favorite attributes, my crabbiness when i'm tired. i can just feel it, it's just a general black cloud over my mood. i do try not to be, it's just more difficult.

and, just for the record, i try really hard not to complain too much about being pregnant. there were a lot of years that i didn't know if i'd ever have another baby because i didn't know if i'dis exhausting.

back to the never ending day.

i got home (630 by this point and dinner was nowhere near being ready), and asked the boys for some help. we all pitched in and finally sat down for dinner at 7. we made 2 shepard's pies (one for dinner, one to freeze) and a delish 7-layer salad (my fav salad right now). then the kitchen looked like a tornado had hit, but matt offered for me to take girls up for baths and he would clean. i love that guy. just as the girls were getting in the tub, lex texted that she was ready. sigh. christian watched the girls in the bath, i picked up lex, and matt worked, worked, worked.

back home just in time to wash girls, jammy them up, and get them to bed. so i missed the whole easy part of the bath, but oh well. i had to remind alexis to finish her chores (which she loved!) and then there was still a floor full or peas, cereal, and other related garbage after sweeping. i hate to knit pick, but at the same time, i feel i should be training the kids to do a good job. and sweeping, for both big kids, is just not working lately. i don't mean to complain about the big kids, they are good kids and they always do their chores, (mostly:) they just cut corners sometimes (like we all did at their age, i'm sure). but i love those kids.

after prayers i vented to matt for a few minutes and went up to bed.

finally.

that sweet man stayed up to finish the kitchen till almost 11. if you know my hubs, he like to be in bed by 9, so i really, really appreciate all of his help.

and that was the super informative, super long version of a 41 week pregnant crabby patty.

today is supposed to be rainy and i don't plan on leaving the house until my chauffeuring duties start up after school.

it's gonna be a good day, i can feel it!

Frankie and me

Matt has been coming home after work on Wednesday's and taking Addie with him to scouts. Since big kids have church also, I've had some special time to spend with my baby.

I love this kid!

surprised!

"how old are you?"

"one!!!"

(or 6, 10, whatever she feels like. but she always gets that 1 finger up there!)

"where's your head?"

she is getting so big and is just cute, cute, cute!

she sings, she talks in sentences, she plays, and loves.

even though she's kind of bratty, i am loving this stage!

ps - iphones make blogging soooooo easy!!!

A sunbeam!

Or a sun-beep if you're frankie.

Addie's sweet nursery leaders made the kids these cards on their last Sunday in nursery. Isn't she just the cutest???

6 days late and counting...

the library was fun. i was running a little behind so we only had about 20 minutes to hang out there before we had to go meet colleen. we had so many books to return (lots of preschool books!) that we pulled our dora rolling backpack, and this big girl got to pull it on the way out.
so grown up!

they were w.i.l.d. at colleen's house! i guess i forgot how fun it is to run around a new house.  i was so embarrassed and then i started to feel bad cause they really haven't been able to get much energy out lately. so we texted sarah and mindy and made some plans. :) 

then franks took a nap and woke up with awesome hair!

monday afternoon started off rough, but ended nicely.

alexis even talked to me about some boy problems and seemed to listen when i responded.

it was like having my old lu back, only a more grown-up, mature version. it was awesome!

we have a book that we write notes back and forth to eachother in, so before bed i hurried and wrote her a note letting her know how much i enjoyed our talk, and that i hope my advice wasn't too "mom." for her. i hope this new lu sticks around for awhile!!!

on tuesday we had plans to meet up with sarah and abby at our winter play spot - mcdonalds.

franks always helps me get ready.

we planned to play until 12, which was made easier because addie came to me about 5 till 12 and informed me that she was sorry, but she had pee'd her pants and could i change her please.

i know accidents happen, but seriously?! she's 3 1/2! we cleaned up her mess and were on our way home. lucky for her, daddy had packed a clean pair of unders for her in our diaper bag so she didn't have to wear a diaper on the way home. :)

i went to the ob at 2:30 for the overdue pregnancy workup.

sonogram that showed babies fluid is good.

i forgot to ask her to measure the baby to see how big she is though.

then the kick count.

if you've never been late in pregnancy, (cause your not lucky like me!) it's where you get hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor for 20 minutes and then you press a game show like button each time the baby kicks.

everything looks good and we are clear for another week.

and no more dilation, just a little bit more effacement.

yay.

after naps, i convinced alexis to go for a walk with me. it had been a beautiful day, even though when we left it was already cooling down. we power walked a little bit, which is very uncomfortable when you are hugely pregnant. i was trying to do a repeat of frankie's birth.

i went to the dr. and got an exam (check), went for a power walk (check), felt crampy all evening (check), contractions started at midnight and she was born at 5. nothing.

and part of me really thought that was gonna work again. :(

park fun!

i had put drumsticks in the crockpot, so we ate dinner as soon as matt got home, and lex and i were off to wrestling. the only other wrestling match i've been to lasted less than an hour and i was hoping for a repeat of that. this one lasted 2 1/2!!!

but lexi had found me a chair with a back and i got to sit and chat with her coach, so it was okay. 

today we're off for another playdate with mindy and izzy. trying to stay busy, busy, busy!

and just for good measure, franks says

"what chu talkin' 'bout, willis?"

Monday, monday

it was a cold, cold weekend! winter has finally caught up with us and i'm not super happy about it. this morning was gray and foggy.

(view out our backyard)

heidi and hannah came over to watch movies on saturday night. hannah stayed the night with lex. the stipulation for them coming over was that lex clean her room. she was supposed to have cleaned it last weekend and never did, even though she got to go out. she piled all her clothes into a laundry basket and called it good. i call that lying. by tuesday, the clothes were all over the floor, again. i told her then that she would not be going anywhere until her room was cleaned. i had thought about what i would do if she asked to have a friend over and came up with, yes a friend can come over and keep you company while you clean your room.

well, h and h came over, and the room is still filthy. so here's my parenting question, does the childs room matter? we've gone back and forth on this one, yes, it's her space, but it's still in our house. and often when i am ready to do laundry i can't because i have no clue what's clean or whats dirty in her room. and yes, i know i could make her do her own laundry, and i probably should but... i don't know. and i hate seeing her filthy room. and i would like it clean. so i made her give me her phone today and until her room gets cleaned. she was super happy about that.

second parenting issue of the weekend is dinner. on saturday night as dinner was cooking (still had an hour+), lexi got home from cheer camp. she was, understandably hungry and made a nutella half sandwich. i was fine with that, but then she made a second. i reminded her that dinner was cooking and please not to ruin her dinner to which she informed me that she didn't want to eat our dinner, she was fine with her nutella. should i really have to force feed my 15 year old?

and the babies are even worse. they do not sit at dinner. they do not eat dinner. they run around, want daddy to hold them, play, anything but sit and eat with the family. just like everything else, this problem started small and i knew i should squash it as it was starting. but i didn't and now it's driving me crazy!!! time outs, tears, frustration, that was our dinner last night. one parent thinks we should make them something they would like to eat and one parent says they should eat what the family eats. what do you think? also, i think if they don't eat dinner, they don't eat anything else that night, right?

so needless to say, the weekend ended worse than it started, but it was still good. i came up with a new creative way to sleep (propped on 3 couch pillows) and slept pretty good last night. we put addie to bed early because she didn't get a "rest" (1:00 church) but kept frankie up because she slept for an hour and a half in the car after driving home from church and she was so cute and fun. she sings and performs for us now, she is growing and getting so smart! we all had fun playing with her and she loved being the center of attention. maybe i can even figure out how to upload a video from my iphone of her being cute.

(but i doubt it)

today we'll go to the library, do laundry, tidy up from the weekend, meet w/colleen, then the big kids get home 2 hours early, so maybe we should go do something?

i would like to do something at the st. mary's hospital, but that's just me.

Freeze out

Christian made it home from the freeze out by 4. They hiked 2 miles (800 feet) in the dark last night (so their eyes could adjust). They stopped several times along the way and each of the leaders shared a spiritual thought.

Christian reported that it was "only cold at night when they slept, other than that the hiking was hot."

His MRE was gross (ravioli) but he ate it because he was hungry. His long johns and all the other cloths he brought (including his brand new boots) were warm and he ended up hiking down the hill without his snow pants.

Besides being a little too tired (and crabby!) all went well and he had a great time. So thankful he gets so many fun opportunities!

Weekend so far

It's been a really good weekend so far. matt had his friday off yesterday. we talked about him either working friday so he could take a day off when the baby comes, or just take a day off early, and he chose early. i'm really glad he did. i was up from 2-5 thursday night/friday morning, so he let me sleep in till 10 when i finally was able to get back to sleep. it was heaven! then he kept the girls occupied so i could do tons of paperwork for the home closing and other equally annoying clerical kinds of things. while he did that, he also got dinner in the crockpot, awesome!!! 

we ate dinner and then he took christian into town to get long johns for his "freeze-out" boy scout campout this weekend. christian seemed excited and even matt was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't go. silly boys! they left at 5:30, got to their camp around 9, and had about a 3 hour hike to their campsite (although i heard from laura today that it was more like a 4+ hour hike and they didn't get settled till 2!).

then i went to a fun pampered chef party. after the party we all sat around talking and visiting. we need to have more girls nights, even if they are just girls night in's.

this morning matt made muffins and alexis and i went to sew camp pants at church at 9. i really hadn't planned on going to the party or the pants making, but here i am, and i'm glad i was able to make it to both. i know nothing about sewing, but lana helped alexis and she was able to finish her pants by 10:30. then we headed to target to help little sister buy "please welcome me to the family gifts" for her older sibs and then had time for a quick lunch at red robin before i had to drop lex off at the high school for a cheer camp. she was so excited.

(not)

my little seamstress!

and some of the other girls...

alexis trying on the almost finished product. 

the pants are very bright. :)

more of the ladies...

lex hiding from the camera.

and sweet lana helping alexis with her sewing duties.

it's a rainy and cold day. and since we don't have a lot planned (you know, since we were supposed to have a newborn keeping us busy), matt and i tried to take a nap when the little girls went down. my aching rib kept me from getting comfy though. now i am eagerly awaiting 4:00 when my chauffeuring duties resume. 

and that's our good weekend so far.