35 Weeks

Today I had a doctor's appointment.  The ultrasound picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. Cameron is alarmed that the baby is going to look like a pig.  I tried to explain to him that it is a picture just like if he pushed his face up against some glass but I don't think he believes me.  Aren't ultrasounds amazing?

PS-  She is weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz as of this afternoon.  Natalie is most likely going to be dethroned as the largest baby.  YIKES!

Sweet and Sour

~Sour~
I am having bus stop issues.  How can I say this diplomatically?  Our neighborhood is a little older than most of the neighborhoods around so it tends to have a higher level of rental houses.  With rental houses comes a lot of shall I say "interesting/differently valued" people than us.  Every school year a new crop of kids come to the bus that wasn't there the year before.  This year is no different and there are lots of new kindergartners and their parents.  Usually having parent there is a good thing to keep their kids in line but not when the parents are as bad as the kids, it makes it even worse.  Yesterday I drove my kids to the bus stop and waited in the car till they got on the bus.  One of the parents of a kid who was waiting for the bus lit up and started smoking right there at the bus stop with the whole group of kids standing there.  I was in SHOCK.  Who smokes in 2011 and who in the WORLD smokes at a bus stop with a bunch of elementary kids?  HOLY COW and why was I the only parent that seems to have a problem with this?!  I am not excited to have to turn into the neighborhood _________  (insert any name you like)  and tell this guy that smoking in front of the kids is not going to happen.  Mitch and I talked about not having the kids take the bus but why is it that just a few idiots ruin things for everyone?  

~Sweet~
As I was still stewing about this today on the way home from the bus, Natalie said the sweetest thing to me.  Almost everyday we have the same conversation but today it was even sweeter.

Natalie:  Is our baby living with Jesus right now?  (Since we have the same conversation every day it really is more of a statement than a question)
Me:  Yes, she is.
Natalie: It is almost time for her to come to Earth and live in our family.
Me:  It sure is.  Only a few more weeks.  I bet she is excited to come.
Natalie:  I think she is excited to come to Earth and be with her big sister Natalie.  I can't wait to be with her.

Natalie's 1st Primary Talk

Natalie gave her first talk in Primary on Sunday.  She did a great job!  Here is a clip of her talk, it was on being a missionary now.

One Month To Go

The countdown is on!  My scheduled c-section date in October 26th.  I am as big as a house.  My maternity clothes no longer fit, hence I am wearing Mitch's old t-shirts that are too big for him!  I can't sit, stand, walk, bend, or sleep for any length of time.  HOORAY for one more month!

Jump Roping

This afternoon the girls were jump roping.  It was so cute.  Natalie was cracking me up and Julia reminds me of a giraffe with her long legs.  Jules told me that she needs a new jump rope because this one isn't as good as the one at school or at Grandma Swany's house.  I guess she has a point, I think it was a dollar store special.

For Sale

Cam has really enjoyed reading Shel Silverstein poem books lately.  A few nights ago he read this poem and he laughed and laughed about it.  I think it strikes too close to home for him, especially with being the older brother of almost THREE little sisters!

For Sale

One sister for sale!
One sister for sale!
One crying and spying young sister for sale!
I'm really not kidding,
So who'll start the bidding?
Do I hear a dollar?
A nickel?
A penny?
Oh, isn't there, isn't there, isn't there any
One kid who will buy this old sister for sale,
This crying and spying young sister for sale?

Flag Football

Cameron decided that this year instead of soccer he want to play football.  Out of luck he was put on a team with a few of his friends from school and one of the friend's dad is the coach.  I almost shed a tear of joy when I found out.  Having a good coach makes my job so much easier.  (Especially when we overheard another coach from another team yelling at his kids if "they did that again they would be doing push ups!"  Yikes!)  He only has practice once a week instead of two unlike soccer and games on Saturdays. Saturday was his first game and boy was he CUTE.  He made a touchdown on the first play of the game and also got the extra point.  He is so competitive and when he made another touchdown and it didn't count because his foot went out of bounds, boy was he mad.  I guess we still have some things to work on!  Some of the football parents are a little intense and I can't imagine what they will be like in a few years but for now we are  LOVING it.  To make this football season even better for Cam, his team's name is the Huskies (He hasn't been brainwashed or anything by his dad.  HA)

Unfortunately for the girls in my attempt to simplify my life these next two months, I chose not to put the girls in soccer or anything else.  Julia doesn't seem to mind but I still feel bad.  What would life be without a little mom guilt?

Room Switch

Room switch!  We finally got our rooms changed.  Cleaning out the office and finding new homes for all the stuff in there was quite the ordeal.  The "office"/computer is now sharing a space with the toy room, Cameron moved into what was the office, the girls share the room that Cameron and Julia were sharing and I am still working on getting the nursery ready for baby!  We have some small details left but the majority of the job is done.  In some ways we are feeling a little squished but with rearranging so many things in the house we actually have more space in other places.

Cameron's room turned out really cute.  He is loving having his own room and space to call his own.



The girl's room looks a lot the same as before.  I told them that painting and decorating will have to wait until the baby is born.  Being so pregnant makes it not easy to paint!  They are waiting patiently for their turn and have decided on a purple and yellow room.  Hopefully by the beginning of next year, I will be ready to get started on it.

Natalie decided that she wanted to sleep on the top bunk and Julia on the bottom bunk.  Last night Julia fell out of the lower bunk and got a rug burn on her arm.  We had a good laugh that it took switching from the top to the bottom for her to fall out.  

Animals + Mindy = Disaster

I am not an animal lover. I know, shock to anyone who knows me. Pets are the worst. I pretty much don't like anything about them. I hate the hair, shedding, poop, the smell of them, slobber, claws, slime, the noise, the smell of their food, the fact you can't go anywhere without dealing with them, how they destroy things, you name it. I hate how cats and dogs want to jump on you, lay on you, rub up against you anytime they see you.  I can't stand how most pet owners think that everyone is going to love their little darlings and when they are sniffing your crotch it is endearing. I hate the neighbor's dogs that bark all day, the neighbor's cats that use my yard as their toilets, and don't get me started on the bird next door! Have I said enough?  Don't get me wrong I like to hold a baby kitten or puppy from time to time.  They are cute and I don't like to see any animal suffering but that is pretty much where my compassion ends.

The only good reason to have a pet is because your kids love them. That is were I am. My kids desperately want a pet. With the room switch, I told Cameron that in his own room we could get a small African Dwarf Frog to have in his room. It is basically like having a fish minus having to have a gross fish. So on Monday I took the happiest kid on earth to the pet store to buy his frog. I let him get two, one for him and one for his sisters. They are loving it, spending all sorts of time watching their frogs.  I patted myself on the back for getting away with getting the world's easiest pet. Fast forward to today, 4 DAYS LATER.... yep, they are DEAD.  I have a boy who is crying that his pet is dead and I want my 10 bucks back.  Stupid frogs.  Through his tears he asked me if maybe we could get a cat, "he loves cats and they don't die so quickly."  What is a mother to do?  The animal hater in me is crying.  Stay tuned.............

Back to School

Today was the day!!  Both Cameron and Julia were very excited about going back to school.  They were up bright and early and ready to go.

Right as it was time to go walk to the bus Cameron was very nervous. I could tell he was doing his best not to cry but managed to keep it together. Julia on the other hand was beyond excited to leave all day and to eat lunch at school. When the bus came, Julia sat in the very front of the bus by herself, Cam sat in the very middle of the bus by himself and all the other kids at the bus stop sat in the back. It was very cute. Cameron told me at the end of last year that 3rd graders don't sit in the front of the bus!

When the kids got home they were very HOT, sweaty, hungry and tired.  (This of course is turning out to be the warmest week of the whole summer!)

Cameron told me that he had  an awesome day and that his teacher is very nice and that they are going to learn about habitats and cursive this year.  He said that he "thinks he is making some new friends"  although when I asked him who he sat by at lunch he said "all by himself."  When he tells me things like that I feel a little like crying.  On the way home from the bus he told me that he thinks that he and Julia are old enough that they don't need mom to come to get them from the bus and that tomorrow would be a good day to start walking home by themselves.  I guess that is a good thing since I can hardly waddle....

Julia's day was good.  Her good friend from preschool is in her class so she was very excited to see her.  Julia was extremely tired when she got home and told me that in the middle of the day she was starving and it wasn't even lunch time yet!  I forget what a hard adjustment 1st grade can be because Julia is so easy going but she told me that she misses Kindergarten and her teacher from last year.  I think she sort of had a rough day adjusting, but she is excited to go back tomorrow though and when I asked her what she did at recess she said "jump rope and I am awesome at it!"  Hopefully in the next few weeks we will get the swing of things.

As for Natalie and mom, we cleaned the house, went to the library, did the laundry, took a nap, and made cookies.  We didn't put Natalie in preschool this year and I hope that she won't be too bored.  At the last minute Mitch and I had a change of heart and tried to get her into preschool but it was full.  I am hoping that I will be able to find some fun things to do with her so that she won't miss the other two too much while they are in school all day.