Waiting

This week has been one of waiting.  I felt like I was counting down all week.  James would come up to me each day and ask how many more days.  How many more days until Grandma gets here?  How many more days until the baby comes?  How many more days until Anna's birthday?  And he wanted to keep tabs on the countdown every day.

The week was mostly summer normal.  Dan still had young men's stuff - including a hike with them on Friday morning - and work of course.  We still had laundry to get done, dinners to cook, and days to fill with play and crafts and fun.  Dan and I had a list of stuff that we needed to get done before Sunday in addition to the usual - including packing my hospital bag, cleaning up the spare bedroom, and getting stuff ready for baby.

The waiting to head into the hospital was the worst.  I wanted the time to pass, I wanted to be busy doing something, but didn't know what.  Dan asked if I would like a blessing - I did.  It was an incredibly precious moment where words he used lines up almost exactly with my patriarchal blessing and after filling as much time as possible pacing the house, it was time to go.

Summer Fun

This week has been rather exhausting and busy, but still fun!  Monday was laundry day as usual.  I haven't got a whole lot of energy these days, especially after climbing up and down the stairs all day while doing laundry, so other than that, we mostly just stayed home and played outside and read books and had fun together.  In the evening, we had a nice family home evening together before sending the kids to bed! 

Tuesday morning, I had my OB appointment - I was just shy of 2 cm dilated, so right about where I would expect to be at this point in the pregnancy.  At the very least it's nice to know that things are progressing as expected.  She also did the group b strep test and sent me home!  Becca came over to hang out and crochet.  The kids LOVED having baby Laura over to play with and entertain.  Aaron had an orthodontist appointment that we ran over to quickly before coming back for lunch.  Aaron got two more brackets on his teeth - he is now up to a grand total of 4.  Aaron also had Twilight Camp this week with the cub scouts - so Tuesday evening, we dropped him off at the church and he went off for an afternoon of cub scout fun.  He had a great time!  In the evening, Dan and I went on a date night - we got a quick dinner, the went to see Wonder Woman together.  We also tried to watch our nephew Colin open his mission call live on Facebook.  We are so excited for him as he prepares to serve in Mexico!  

Wednesday was quiet most of the morning, but the evening got a little crazy.  Dan was helping out at Twilight camp, so he took Aaron up in the afternoon.  I left not too much later to stop by Doug's new house and get the tour and the rest of the trampoline parts.  I got home just in time to let Eileen head off to Young Women's.  

Thursday was again Twilight Camp for Aaron, along with me running a bunch of errands.  I hit Costco and Walmart to get everything ready for the weekend.  Plus, the group b strep test kit they used at my appointment on Tuesday was found to be an expired one, so I had to go back in for another quick test.  In the evening, Dan set up the trampoline for the kids, but by the time they got it all done, it was time for the kids to go to bed.  

Friday they spent all day on the trampoline.  They figured out after lunch that putting on swimsuits and soaking themselves while jumping was a LOT of fun.  They also had piano lessons in the morning.  Even during lessons - when they weren't doing lessons, they were mostly jumping.  It's been really nice to have something to entertain the kids while I have no energy :)  Friday afternoon, Becky picked me up for our Mom's night out.  We headed to the hotel, checked in and watched Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries while she worked on knitting a baby blanket and I worked on the baby's cross stitch.  We grabbed a quick dinner at Noodles and Co and finished up our evening. We had a great time - we always do - relaxing with a great friend and no kids for a night.  Plus, we got to sleep in the next day!  

We had planned Anna's birthday party for Saturday - she wanted a party with some friends, and since the baby will be coming right before her birthday, we wanted to kinda let her have a party just for her.  We did hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and cake and ice cream and presents - but the rest of the party was spent outside in swim suits throwing water balloons, jumping on the trampoline with a hose, playing on the slip and slide, and shooting each other with water guns.  They had a great time together!  After the party and clean up, we tried to make sure we got everything ready for the Sabbath before heading to bed exhausted.

Dan made Anna an awesome rainbow cake!

Eileen has been wanting to get her hair cut short for Summer, so after the younger kids were in bed, I took her over to J.C. Penny's and she got her hair cut.  She looks so cute!  And she got lots of compliments on it today at church.

Church today was wonderful.  Aaron helped me make biscuits for breakfast for Dan for Father's Day, and the primary kids sang for the father's in Sacrament meeting.  It was hilarious - they sang "Daddy's Homecoming" and at the part where they sing "put my arms around his neck" when most of the kids made motions of pretending to hug their daddy, Evelyn put her hands around her throat and looked like she was trying to pretend to choke her daddy.  Classes and lessons were wonderful!  After church, we had lunch, I made cookies and then we headed to ward choir.  I managed to make it and stand the whole time.  Just one more week!  In the evening, we had some friends from church over to cake and ice cream and games.  It was lots of fun!

We are now down to one week.  I kinda thought I might be a bit melancholy about this being my last pregnancy, but really I'm just glad.  I'm at that least comfortable and most achy part of pregnancy and I'm eager to be done with pregnancy and eager to get to hold our baby!!  James was so cute the other day - he told me that he wanted our family to be bigger - I told him that it would be in just a little while!  I think I may have "Final Countdown" stuck in my head all week....

Utah

Monday morning, we loaded up the car and headed out to Utah.  It's funny how a 9 hour car ride can feel short compared to the usual 14 hour trip to Texas!  We had a stop for lunch and had a yummy egg salad sandwich lunch courtesy of Anna and the kids got to play a bit before we finished the trip.  We got in just in time for a late dinner and to put the kids to bed.  My parents had gotten in earlier in the day and Sandi and Jon got in later that evening.  The next day, the fun started - at least for the kids.  My parents ended up spending most of the trip trying to get things sorted out for Grandma Penny and while they got a lot done - they didn't get to spend nearly as much time as they would have liked hanging out with the rest of us.

Tuesday we started out the day in the pool, then for a change of pace, we headed to a really neat public park that Jon found!  It had some really cool things to play on and a smoking volcano and a fun little cheap train ride and even some water fun to splash around in.  The kids (and adults) had a great time!  We headed back to the pool before dinner for a bit and had fun, then had a yummy dinner before sending some tired out kids to bed!   Dan didn't go to the pool with us in the morning - he had a phone interview, but he joined us for the park!

Wednesday again included as much pool time as the kids could talk us into.  In the afternoon, we met up with mom for pedicures.  I know Eileen doesn't look happy in this picture, but she did enjoy herself.  We all had a nice time together chatting and getting a bit of pampering.

Thursday morning, we got to go and meet up with Grandma Penny - they wheeled her outside so we could chat and eat angel food cake and let the kids run around.  We found a hummingbird nest with 2 babies in it and we all got rather excited about that!  The kids had a fun time playing and chatting with Grandma.  She tired easily, but the kids were very good about being careful around her and listening to her.

Friday morning, Sandi and Jon took Taz and Kai and Eileen and Aaron to Zion's National Park to hike.  They had a great time.  Weather was good for them and Eileen found a whole bunch of tadpoles and frogs that she could pick up and play with, so she was in 7th heaven.  While they went there - I took the younger kids to the pool.  They have been loving being in the pool this week - we tried to be good about sunscreen, but there was still a little bit in the way of sunburns.  I've been enjoying the pool too - taking the weight off my joints every day really helped with me being comfortable and with the swelling in my feet!  We finished the day with a fun game that Grandpa set up with questions about Great Grandma Penny.  The kids played in teams and got to answer questions for fake money which they used after to "buy" some fun little prizes.  I was amazed at how well Eileen had listened to Great Grandma Penny and remembered the answers that she had given the day before.  We were all amazed at James' ability to guess the right answer almost every time - despite all his answers being random guesses!

After most of the kids had gone to bed, Eileen was enjoying her quiet time and got a gentle hair brushing from Grandpa!

Overall it was a wonderful week.  I know my parents would have liked less stress and more time with the grand kids, but they were able to figure a lot of things out and get things understood and figured out in a way that will help them have peace of mind now and channels of communication for the future.  The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and it was wonderful to get to see the kids with Grandma Penny.  Saturday morning, we cleaned up and then hit the road heading for home.  We had a lunch break and a couple gas breaks and made it home in good time for dinner and bed!  Dan picked up Koopa and mowed the lawn and we got a few things done before the Sabbath.

Church today was wonderful.  We got to listen to a couple awesome talks from our high councilmen and an amazing musical number by one of our wards elders and one of our young men.  Classes and lessons were great - both ended up being wonderful reminders of what an amazing man I'm married to.  After church, Dan went to visit a friend from work for a little baby shower get together.  I took the kids and headed to choir.

We now officially have 2 weeks left - 2 weeks from now I will be in the hospital getting ready to have a baby!

Vacation Time

This week was the kids first full week of Summer Break.  The kids spent a lot of the week just playing and having fun together.  Monday was laundry and grocery shopping as usual.  

Tuesday, Aunt Tina came and took the kids to the Butterfly Pavilion for a few hours and I went to get a hair cut and relax a bit.  The kids had a blast - they always love the Butterfly Pavilion.  I chopped about a foot off my hair - but it is still half way down my back - so not exactly short.  Aaron decided to re-read through the Harry Potter books and at one point, I caught him reading like this and couldn't help snapping a picture.  :)  In the evening, I had my last institute class - we had some yummy snacks and a great lesson!  I'm looking forward to next year and diving into the Book of Mormon!  We also had our friends Kay and Reggie over for some games - Apparently Eileen had thrown down the gauntlet about beating Reggie at Dominion, so they came over to try and take her down a notch... and failed....  Thankfully they were still there playing and having fun when I got back from Institute and stuck around for another game - where Dan and I both got brutally beaten.  :) 

Wednesday, Eileen went over to help out a sister in our ward who had just had twins - she had a great time serving and helping with the tiny babies and their toddler age older sister!  While she was there, I took the kids and we all went to the dentist's office for Evie's appointment which went well, then we headed back to pick up Eileen, then home.  In the evening was the usual summer Wednesday - Young Men's and Young Women's activities and the younger kids hanging out with me.

Thursday was piano lessons in the morning, then just hanging out and playing outside most of the afternoon.  We also were starting to want to get things ready for our trip next week.  I took Eileen and Anna with me to drop off Aaron and Cub Scouts, then we headed over to the Dollar Store and Walmart to get some things for the trip.  Then we picked up Aaron and headed home.

Friday was more time at home - getting some stuff ready and getting some clean up done.  I took the kids to the used book sale before lunch and we picked up some books and headed home.  Anna was excited to find a bunch of Babysitter Club books that we didn't already have and we got some good stuff - but the selection wasn't as good as it's been in the past.

Saturday was rather busy.  Eileen had flute lessons in the morning.  Dan was taking his Project Manager Certification Test that he has been studying hard for this past month.  He passed it and did very well - it was such a relief for him to have that done and to be able to be done studying and stressing out.  We also spent a lot of the day getting laundry done and getting things ready for the trip.
Sunday was church in the morning with great talks and lessons and choir in the afternoon, then in the evening we got the kids clothes packed up and ready to go for the next day!