Happy Easter!

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Happy Easter from Maverick, Brighton, and Chandler

Still no baby, so we all headed to church this morning.  Granddaddy Bob & Mimi joined us.

We plan to head over to their house this afternoon for dinner, along with Grandma, Nanny, my mom's sister, and her family.  If the rain holds off, the kiddos may get to have another egg hunt!

Good Friday

 Today, the little boys and I headed to "Castle Park" for a playdate.

It is still a little cool for my liking outside, but luckily the sun was out and it did warm up some.

I wasn't sure how Maverick would do and how adventurous he would be, but he was all over the place.  Luckily he was wearing a bright red coat, so I could usually keep my eyes on him.  I don't have to worry about Brighton so much, since he knows to stay in the area that I define, but not so much with Maverick.  There were a lot of no-shows for the playdate, so it ended up just being one other mom with her two kids.  She has one son, Levi, who is in-between Maverick and Brighton's ages, and a 7-month old little girl.  It was nice to get out of the house and have the boys burn off some energy.  Not much else to do while we wait, wait, wait for this baby!

Maverick says "Peek-a-Boo"

Maverick realized I was taking a picture so he closed his eyes (his "cheese" face)

We had a picnic lunch before heading home for naps.  What a great Good Friday!

First T-Ball of the Season

Yesterday, Chandler had his first T-Ball practice of the season.  This is the first year that he will be playing on a league and playing actual games.  I think it will be a good experience for him.

He enjoyed the practice very much although it was SUPER COLD!  Mom had him wear a jacket, but he needed more layers, as did I.  When will Spring finally arrive??

The practice lasted 1 hour and there were 9 boys present.  The head coach, Justin, didn't have his assistant that day, so he asked some of the dads to help out and they did.  I think we were the least prepared in the fact that I didn't think to bring Chandler's glove.  Luckily, the coach had an extra!

There is quite the spectrum of abilities on the team.  Chandler falls somewhere in the middle.  Hopefully with some afternoon practices with Dad he can improve his skills before the first game in about 1 month.  Mom has little to no baseball knowledge, so she will pass this off to Dad.  Granddaddy Bob is welcome to come and help out as well :)

Here is Chandler catching with the coach.

Getting ready to hit:

 He got a hit before running to first base where he was tagged out.

Here's to a good start to the season.  Way to go Chandler.  I'm proud of you!

The Full Moon

39 Weeks!

According to the Farmers' Almanac, the Full Moon occurred at 5:27 a.m. this morning.  I guess the moon failed to work it's magic on this baby.  This morning, Chandler woke up and told me that he had a dream that I would have the baby today and it was a girl.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Even though I have a week till my due date, I feel like I should have had the baby by now based on the fact my last two were so early, and everybody, including my midwives, said they thought this one would follow suit.  Ha!  This baby has their own agenda, obviously.  I'm just hoping they are born before 4/6 as this is when I have scheduled not one, but TWO birthday parties.  Scrambling at the last minute to reschedule these will not be my idea of fun.

Come out soon baby.  Today is a good day :)

Love,

Mommy

Fashionably Late

Random picture of the boys and their cousin Chloe from a Spring-like day last week

Fashionably Late.  Who came up with that idea?!?  In my opinion, there is nothing "fashionable" about being late.  I am almost always on time (even with 3, soon to be 4) kids.  Another thing is that my "on time" means that I am 10-15 minutes ahead of the scheduled time.  If I am 5 minutes or less away from that time, I feel like I am late.  As a rule, I'm generally the first one of a group to arrive.

For example, the other night, a group of moms was meeting at a cafe for drinks and dessert.  I got there early and when the designated time to arrive came and went I thought nothing of it.  When another five minutes went by, I started to wonder, was I in the right place?  Surely, another person would be here by now.  Maybe I was just seated in an area different from the group and I had missed everybody.  No, that was not the case....nobody else was there yet.  Does this make me the weird one?

When it comes to events like parties and such, I try my best not to arrive more than 5 minutes or so ahead of time.  I don't want to stress out the host by arriving too early and them not being prepared.  Once I arrive, of corse I offer to help with anything the host may need done, but some people I've found prefer to do things themselves.  To delay my arrival, this usually involves either one or a combination of the following:

1. stopping for gas
2. driving under the speed limit
3. circling the block a few times
4. sitting in my car pretending to "do" something before slowly walking out

If I'm taking the kids they have their own ways of ensuring that mommy is not too early including:

1. The oldest one needing to poop.
2. The middle one needing to poop.
3. The baby needing a diaper change.
4. Once everybody is buckled in the car, remembering a much beloved item that has to come with us, or the world will end.

Funny how that works.  We always have bathroom breaks prior to departing, and yet #1, #2, & #3 are the main reasons that I'm closer to "on time" than I'd like to be.

So that about sums up my thoughts on being Fashionably Late.  Perhaps this baby is going to teach me the joy in being fashionably late (but I hope not).  Right now they are teaching me patience, and I could always use more of that.

Church Egg Hunt

This morning we loaded the boys up and headed to church for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.  For some reason, mommy was asked to pray over the hunt in front of the entire crowd.  Not sure why, but I guess I did okay!  The 0-3 age group went first so they wouldn't be trampled.  Maverick found his share of eggs, and enjoyed placing them in his bag.

The big boys fell in the 4-7 age group and quickly gathered up their 10 eggs before getting the go ahead to gather more.  I think they had a good time.  In order to avoid potential allergic reactions, our church requests that they eggs contain candy that doesn't have nuts.  Unfortunately for mommy, this means most of the candy is "junk" and their is little to no chocolate to be had.  Oh well...don't need the extra calories of that kind anyway.

After all the eggs were found, we emptied out their contents into our bag and returned the plastic eggs to use another Easter.  

I hadn't mentioned it yet, but our family won tickets to go to the Easter Egg Roll at the White House.  Chandler was super excited about this (as was I) but because this baby is still incubating, we will have to forgo this event and hopefully win tickets again for next year.  When I finally broke the news that we would not be going to the Easter Egg Roll there were a few tears shed, but luckily I was able to say that we were going to go to another hunt and get candy, so that helped significantly :)

A Letter to Baby

38 weeks

Hello Baby!

      This is your mommy.  I am writing this letter to you to get down some of my thoughts before you make your appearance into this world and I'm left in a sleep-deprived fog and forget some of these things.  Honestly, I thought that you would be here (at least by today) and so I'm very anxious to meet you.  The good thing is that I'm actually feeling better these days than I was two weeks ago, so I can wait a little while longer.  Please, just come on or before your "due-date" and that will be fine with me!

       Everybody is so impatient to know if you are a boy or a girl!  I think your biggest brothers hope that you are a sister.  I don't really know why that is.  I guess they already know what it's like to have a brother and they want to try out something new.  It will definitely be something new.  Our house is filled with blue, and trucks, and balls, and everything is a weapon.  Not that you can't play with these things too....

        Another question that I'm constantly asked is if you will be our last baby.  Although I'm still not willing to say with 100% certainty, I'm feeling much more "complete" with you than I ever felt with #3 (Maverick).  I would tell people that Maverick was "probably our last" but never truly felt that way in my heart (so here you are!)  For this reason, I know I will try to keep you little as long as I can.  The time just goes by so fast and I want to treasure each moment of your growth and development into the person that you will become.

        I've already joked with your daddy that I'm not sharing you and I will be holding you all the time, Ha!  I just can't wait to meet you, and see what you look like, and discover your personality.  I just feel so blessed to get to do this one more time.  What a unique blessing from God you will be!  You are beyond loved, cherished, and wanted.  Whenever you are ready to come, we are ready for you.

Hope to see you soon!

Love,

Mommy

Maverick is TWO!

It's hard to believe that my sweet baby boy is TWO!

Maverick at Birth:

Age 1:

Age 2:

Maverick had a small birthday celebration at Grandma's house on the 17th and also one at Mimi's house today.  He certainly has had his share of cake lately.  He woke up this morning and got his present from Mom & Dad, a new dump truck.  It was a hit!

What can I say about Maverick?  He definitely has a personality all his own.  One of his favorite phrases right now is, "No, my turn!"  As the current baby in the house, he usually gets his way and he likes it like that.  I know he will have quite the adjustment when he is knocked off his "throne".

His vocabulary has just exploded in the past two months.  He went from hardly any words at all to attempting to say almost anything.  His eating is improving as well and I think we have finally weaned him off the baby food pouches that were a staple of his diet for so long.  He has finally started eating some meats as long as he can dip it in any type (ketchup, bbq, ranch dressing, syrup) sauce.  

Maverick loves to be outside and has started riding Chandler's old run-bike.  I'm sure by this summer he will really be flying on that thing.  He still takes an afternoon nap for about 1.5 hours and sleeps from 7:30 p.m. till he gets woken up (usually for Chandler's school) about 7:15 a.m.  On the weekends we are sometimes treated to everybody sleeping till 8!

Maverick attends a Mother's Morning Out program one day a week and really enjoys himself there.  He will even name some of his friends, and especially loves one teacher that also attends our church, 

Ms. Beth.  He loves playing with his big brothers, especially when they are digging holes in our front yard.  Two is one of my favorite ages (thus far) and I can't wait to see what this new year brings.

Happy Birthday Maverick.  We love you!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The O Boys would like to wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day.  

We are headed to church this morning, especially so Maverick can get his Birthday (hershey) kisses from Pastor Jay.  He is very excited about this.  I don't think I'll be having a St. Patty's Day baby, but as Derek pointed out...it's only 9 o'clock.  

Crafting

Today, Chandler has off from school.  The little boys have their 1/2 day programs, so this means it's just me and Chandler for the morning.

Chandler wanted to go to a paid museum, (one we don't have a membership to) but since I'm trying to save money, I attempted to steer him another direction with the promise of crafts!

I think it worked out well, and he didn't seem too disappointed.  I love making crafts, and it's hard to do sometimes while managing all three, so this was a fun way to spend the morning.

We colored and baked Shrinky-Dinks:

Made a "Snowman"

and painted a race car!

To Do's are DONE!

Today I am Full Term!  That means Baby is welcome to come anytime.  Honestly, I don't feel like anything is imminent, but I'll keep you posted!

Today, one of Maverick's friends, Cameron, turned two.  We celebrated by going to a storytime and then to GiGi's for a birthday cupcake.  We sang to Cameron and then sang to Maverick since his birthday is five days away.

 Cameron enjoyed a chocolate cupcake.

Maverick and I shared a snickerdoodle cupcake.  It was very yummy!

Another thing on my "To Do" list before baby comes was to have a "date night" with my Dad.

We tried out a new restaurant "Flights" at North Hills.  It was okay.  Some things were very good, and some things we tried were just so-so.  Everything could be labeled as unusual.  See the picture of the hot pink/magenta "rice" below.  It wasn't really rice, and honestly we don't know what it was.  It was good, but the color would throw you for a loop.

The purpose of having dinner with my Dad was to fill out a memory book with him.  We were able to talk about many things and that was so nice.  Normally when I'm around him these days, so are the three boys, so you can imagine it's hard to get in a word edge-wise, much less have a meaningful conversation.  Hopefully it's something we can do again soon!

Pregnancy Photos!

It has been on our agenda for the past MONTH to get some pregnancy photos of me.

I've never been pleased with the photos at those cheapy-chain stores, so I begged asked Derek to take some for me.  Too bad the weather has been uncooperative this past month with every weekend being cloudy, cold, rainy, and/or snowing!!

Well, the clock is ticking and this weekend was probably going to be our last chance.  We decided to get up early (extra early since we lost an hour of sleep) and head to the lake after a quick breakfast to try and get a few shots in.

Although I've reached the fat glowing stage of pregnancy, these turned out not too bad:

Hard to believe it's less than 40 degrees outside right now!

I like both of these belly shots.

Here's hoping this little baby comes out soon (just after Wednesday!)

36 Weeks and Counting!

Yeah!  36 weeks!  If this baby comes as early as Maverick that means I only have 9 days to go.

I'm trying my best to savor these last bites of pregnancy because there is something so special about having your baby growing inside you and I know I won't have this privilege for much longer.  I'm feeling (and looking) as big as a house these days.  My hip/back pain can be so bad some days I can hardly walk and others it is more manageable.  Sleep is hard to come by as no position is really that comfortable.  Even with all these aches and pains I'll miss being pregnant once baby is here.

I was talking to Derek last night about what is the one thing he is looking forward to the most and the least about the birth.  I have yet to get an answer from him.  As for me, I'm looking forward to the most the moment when the baby is placed on my chest and I truly get to meet them for the first time.  What a magical moment :)  As for the least, it's the car ride to the birth center.  I hate being confined like that when I'm trying to have a baby!

Today I picked up baby's Birth-Day cake.  How cute!  I know the boys will be excited to eat this.  Maverick was ready to eat it today!  I also realized that since we are not having a shower for this baby before they are born that it would be smart to have some diapers on hand.  I picked up a small pack that will hopefully get us through the first few days.  For the most part, I use cloth diapers, but my babies aren't generally big enough to fill them out until 1 month or so.

Not much left on the "to do" list, but that's a good thing.  Now we wait...

Assembly Required

We started our weekend off by going out to eat as a family.  This is not something that we do often for a few reasons.  It can be difficult to entertain the children during a long time waiting for food at a restaurant and also it's not in the budget.  

Derek and I aren't sure of this fact, but we think this may be only the second time that we've gone out to eat as a family (just our immediate family).  The first time was New Year's Eve 2010, right before Maverick joined the family.  I looked back through pictures to see if we had any photographic evidence, but couldn't find any.  Just to give you an idea, Chandler and Brighton were about this old:

With the help of a gift certificate from Christmas, we managed to go to a nice Chinese restaurant and the boys behaved very well.  We even managed to last through dessert!  The car ride home was another story.  It was like they had to get all their silliness out that had been bottled up for the last 90 minutes!

Saturday was spent assembling the various baby paraphernalia that we had gotten down out of the attic earlier.  Derek spent most of the morning putting together the bouncer, the baby bed, and the swing.

He also put together our new outside toy box (Thanks Granddaddy Bob & Mimi) that was a combined gift for C & M's B-days.  We are hoping this will keep the outside clutter to a minimum.  Frankly it was starting to take over the yard!

I've been having major hip/back pain lately and somedays are better than others.  Luckily this was a good day and I was able to be outside in the afternoon with the boys and Derek and we managed to clean up the back yard some.  We cut down the monkey grass border around the pool, cut the grass, spread some pine straw, and trimmed some bushes.  The next major project we need to do is get some mulch underneath the playset so it's not so muddy.  I do wish the weather would hurry up and get warm.  I'm ready to start enjoying our yard again!