39 weeks... and counting.

Well, I am 39 weeks and counting the days to meet this little one.  I just had a Drs appt today and am about 2cm with the head pretty low. My Dr is hoping maybe he/she will make an appearance soon but we will just be waiting to see.  She says everything looks good (blood pressure, baby's size, etc) so there's no reason to look at scheduling me for induction until after my due date which is good news to me as well.  However at this point, I am pretty uncomfortable (especially sleeping and moving around) so in some ways, I wouldn't mind if this little one decided to come early!

I had an ultrasound a week ago and everything looked fine. The baby was around 7lbs at the time. I hoping baby will not be too much bigger when I deliver!!  

And of course, some pictures on my progress.

39 week picture

38 week picture

I'd wanted to try and get a few pictures of the kids with me and my huge belly... they weren't super cooperative but we got a few where they'd at least sit next to me.

Kids and me

Family pic - everyone's ready to meet this lil' one!

We even tried two different days and still only partial cooperation. Evan though in general is very sweet with me and the baby. He loves to touch my belly and feel the baby kick. He talks to and about the baby. Caitlin likes to give the baby hugs although she still doesn't quite get that she has to be careful around my belly. I think they will be excited to finally meet him/her though.

Some girls from our old neighborhood whom we still meet for playdates threw a little baby shower for me which was so sweet.  It was all "bee" theme since we don't know if it's a boy or girl. It was fun to get together and everything Nicole did was so cute! It was great to get a few things for the baby and celebrate this little one.  I know he/she will be getting LOTS of hand-me downs so doing something special for him/her meant a lot.

 Now we are just waiting! If you didn't check back, we had 18 people respond to the poll on the sex of the baby:  12 for BOY, 5 for GIRL, and one for OTHER (anyone want to fess up to that??).  So, I think I like most people are leaning towards a boy. Evan is hoping for a brother and Caitlin is hoping for a sister so at least one of them should be happy!

We will keep everyone updated with any news.  Hopefully the next post will be about this baby's arrival!

Winter Soccer

This year, we decided to let Evan play winter soccer (which is soccer inside a gym).  It's nice in some ways because the practices are just a half hour before the games so we don't have any extra obligations during the week. However, the practices are also mostly run by the YMCA staff and they don't do a lot of useful drills or "real" practice.  Still, Evan was excited to play since his best buddy Alex was playing on the same team.

Evan and Alex on picture day

Team picture - Go Dynamite!

Evan practicing

These are some of the Y-led drills

Another of the drills (put your elbow on the ball)... see what I mean?

Still, we've enjoyed the soccer even if it wasn't quite what we expected and Caitlin has gotten in on the action too!  She participates in the Y-led drills with Daddy and really enjoys that.  We are getting her ready since in the Spring, she will get to play on Evan's team!  She really really wants to play with him.



Happy Valentine's Day 2013

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day! 

I got to go to Caitlin's preschool yesterday for her party. She was very excited for it.

Making a bracelet

Putting her Tinkerbell Valentine's Day cards into everyone's bags

Decorating cookies

Voila! Looks delicious!

 And today was Evan's party which we just got back from. They played Valentine bingo and also decorated cookies.

Evan decorating his cookie

Looks good!

Even Daddy got to join us!

And Caitlin got in on the action too... lucky girl!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!  We are sending lots of love to our family and friends on this special day.  I feel so blessed. Big hugs to everyone from our family to yours.

Pregnancy Update and Poll

Well, I'm 4 weeks from my due date of March 7th so I thought I should do an update.  So far, I'm feeling pretty good... huge, but good. I've got the normal aches and pains and sleeping isn't the best, but I can't complain too much.  We are finally starting to get prepared around here for the arrival of Baby Stacer. I'll do another post if I can about that but we got the nursery somewhat set up and the older ones arranged in their rooms, both in big kid beds!  We've gotten a lot of stuff out of the attic and started cleaning/washing things.  Now, it's time to work on names!

Me at 30 weeks

Me at 34 weeks - really popped out in 4 weeks!

And last but not least, a fun little poll! Since we don't know what we are having, I thought I'd let everyone guess on whether it's a boy or a girl.  Most people tell me boy so I guess that's what I'm thinking. Evan wants a brother and Caitlin wants a sister so at least one of them will be happy! I just want a healthy, happy baby :)

Is Baby Stacer a Boy or a Girl?

If the poll above does not show up in your email, click the link below and it will take you to the actual blog entry where you can vote!  Just something fun for everyone.

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO BLOG AND POLL

Bath Time!

Just some quick pictures I took the other day while the kids were taking a bath. They were having such a good time (which they normally do) and I always say, I need to take pictures! So I finally did it...grabbed my camera and a few pics.  Lately, they have been two peas in a pod... so much that I even had a woman ask me if they were twins since they got along so well!  

Enjoy! Next blog entry - a pregnancy update and poll!

More birthday and projects!

Since Baba and Caitlin share a birthday, we had one more little family celebration at our house the day before their birthdays.  

Birthday girls blowing out their candles

Happy 3rd and 31st Birthdays

Also, we were lucky enough to get Bryce's dad and his friend Jim (Pepa/the new papa) to drive down to Austin from Michigan to help with a big project.  Ever since we bought the house, I've wanted to put some type of locker/storage thing in our laundry/mud room. We wanted to maximize the space and our use of it which kind of meant we needed a custom solution.  Papa said he could do it and he convinced his friend to join him.  So, they came down for the Holidays/Caitlin's birthday and built us these fabulous lockers in our laundry room.  Thanks to both of them and Dave Greenberg for lending us some tools.

View from the house into the laundry room (the other door connects to the garage). We have 3 lockers, each with their own drawer underneath (with slow close drawers) and own shelf/cabinet on top. I love that I have a shelf for each kid to put water bottles/papers, etc. and a cabinet for anything I want out of the way or whatever else I might want to put in there. Each drawer is also divided so we can put say shoes on one side and hats, etc on the other or however we want to divide things.

View from the other direction.  There is bead board in the back. The bench is nice and big so you can sit and put on shoes; plus I can still put my laundry basket over there when doing laundry. Now the kids backpacks are off the floor and coats are with them.Shoes aren't thrown all over the house and I'm not constantly taking them upstairs. We love it! Thanks again for all their hard work.  Now we need to convince them to come back and do some more projects for us :)

Caitlin's Rapunzel Party

When it came time for Caitlin's birthday, there was no question what the theme would be... Rapunzel! She has been Rapunzel obsessed for quite awhile.  Of course, I immediately went to Pinterest for party ideas where I found quite a few cute ones.  If you haven't seen the movie, then 1) you should because it is pretty good and 2) you probably won't get most of the things below but just trust me that they are part of the movie Tangled.

The birthday girl!

Favors: Rapunzel's Paints!

Below are some of the food items.  We served them all in cooking pans (which if you've seen the movie, you understand the frying pan reference).

These were "Lantern boat" jello cups

Tower kabobs of fruit

This was some homemade bread put into Rapnuzel's braid

We also had "Hazelnut soup" which was just a yummy tomato soup from Costco along with Maximus' apples and Snugly Duckling sweet potato fries.  Yummy!

We decorated the house with some sun banners I made and also covered the table in parcel paper so the kids could draw all over it.

More decorations

Food setup

This was my poor attempt at "Tower" cupcakes. The icing just would not work with me and I couldn't get it to shape into a tower. But, the kids didn't care... they ate it up regardless!

The cake

Because Caitlin's birthday is in January, I was nervous about the weather. We were going to be having all these kids over and if they couldn't play outside, I just didn't know what they were going to do... it would be too much chaos in the house!  Caitlin does a weekly music class called Music with Mar. My friend Ange is a teacher so we got her to do a short class with all the kids. It was perfect! Caitlin loved it and so did most of the kids. And Ms. Ange did such a great job too.

Here the kids doing an instrument parade. I took some videos which I'll try to upload later.

Fortunately, the weather turned out okay so the kids were able to play outside as well.  

Happy 3rd Birthday Caitlin!