You're not a lady...

You're nothing but a sister! Do you remember that line from the Disney cartoon, Aristocats? Sometimes I worry about Joseph, growing up flanked on both sides by SISTERS!

This is the garb they dressed him up in earlier this week - what a good sport!



He doesn't seem to mind. He flits and fluts around with the best of the fairies in our house...and he also pushes his Tonka truck into my kitchen cupboards...so maybe he's going to turn out ok in spite of his odds!

Oh come on - it's funny!!

Click the picture to view it larger!

Isn't he sweet??

I think I may have made mention of Joseph's desire to continuously test drive the "terrible 2's" before he actually turns 2, haven't I?

Well, in case I haven't - or in case y'all didn't believe me - here's just a sample of what I'm talking about.

Tonight Brandon and the 3 oldest kids (aka "mom's helpers") all have various activities at the church. This leaves me alone with Megan, Jared, Malorie, Melanie and JOSEPH!! Oh sure, Brandon reminds Megan and Jared about being "the oldest kids at home" and how for a few more weeks we really have to help mom, blah blah blah and tells them to watch Joseph, but in their defense, this kid is almost impossible to keep your thumb on!

We did pretty well for the first hour everyone was gone, and then I realized we were doing TOO WELL! It was TOO quiet and Joseph was nowhere to be found. Megan and Jared were reading books in my room - the little girls were watching Spongebob in my room - and Joseph....where was Joseph???

Found him......



He was in the kitchen, of course. Never mind that Megan had shut off all of the lights downstairs! There he sat, on the kitchen island, in the dark...in a huge pile of powdered sugar!!!!!!



Tonight was Jacob's Blue & Gold and each boy was asked to bring a cake and frosting - one of the "games" was going to be for the boy and a parent to decorate a cake (dessert). So in the rush to get out the door on time, the powdered sugar used to make the frosting somehow was forgotten...

Right where Joseph could find it! I'm just very proud of myself for grabbing the camera instead of a really big stick!

Another week -

Either these doctor appointments are coming faster and faster - or we're just getting really boring in between appointments because it feels like I JUST posted a baby update without much else in between!

Well, this one is easy enough - everything is still the same! Which is great news. We are currently 31.5 weeks along...we're hoping to reach 35-36 weeks and our doctor finally caved and said he'd love to see 36 weeks also. He has been saying he'd like to see us make it to 38, but I think he has given in too and would throw us a party at 36.

So that's it - clean bill of health and instructions to "Keep doing what you're doing." Which is getting harder and harder...only because, well, I'm bored out of my skull. But we all know that it's for the best and sucking it up for a few more weeks isn't going to kill us! However, daily trips to NICU for hours at a time probably would kills us - so we'll mind the doctor!

Thanks for checking on us...one more week behind us!

Lunar Eclipse

Wednesday night, Jared, Malorie & Melanie came into my room to watch the eclipse with me. (Everyone else was gone to Scouts and Activity Night at church).



Here are the kids watching out my bedroom window...and a peek at the view I see every day from my bed!



This video was taken around 7:40pm (about 1/2 way through the whole eclipse process).



I wish our camera had a little more UMPH! Maybe by the next lunar eclipse, we will have upgraded! :)

Update...

Not a ton going on this week - I did have another OB appointment and since I promised to update so many of you, I figured here was the best place to do it.

We're doing great - baby is growing well and staying put, can't ask much more of her.

I'm still down (bedrest) - but we're making it. Brandon and the kids are amazing. Madilyn and some friends from church spent last Saturday preparing meals to keep in our freezer. I was amazed at how much they got done in such a relatively short amount of time. (I guess I wasn't the one standing in the kitchen cooking, so maybe I shouldn't be the one to decide if it was a short amount of time or not!)

We sure appreciate all of you who continue to contact us and check on how we're doing. The phone calls and emails and cards and baby gifts - all are so touching and we appreciate you so much!

Today we're 30 weeks and 4 days - tonight it feels like time is really dragging by - I like the days when it seems to be flying by much better!

Sums it all up...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brother, I hate this kind of stuff! And for the record, I'm only doing this b/c I love the friend who tagged me...that's what I get for snooping around and catching up with her blog! Do NOT feel obligated to stick around and read this - Brandon and I full on know that we are boring as all get out! lol

How long have you been together? 14 years (married) 20 years (since we first met)

How old is he? 37

How old are you? 37

Who eats more? Depends on who is pregnant at the time

Who said "I love you" first? Brandon

Who is taller? Brandon by about 6 inches

Who sings better? BRANDON!!!

Who is smarter? Depends on if you want "book smarts" or "street smarts" - he wins in the book department!

Who does the laundry? I do the majority of it - but Brandon isn't helpless when I'm down

Who does the dishes? The kids - ha ha ha! Between the two of us - I think it would be a toss up...I might do them a little more only b/c I'm home all day

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do

Who pays the bills? I do - but with the money he earns! :)

Who mows the lawn? Back in the good old days, when we had GRASS, I did it!

Who cooks dinner? I do a majority of the time - but like laundry, Brandon does a great job in the kitchen when we need him to.

Who is more stubborn? Him of course! ;)

Who kissed who first? Brandon kissed me! "Kiss me quick."

Who asked who out? Brandon asked me to lunch when I was a senior in High School.

Who proposed? He did -

Who is more sensitive? Again, it must be him - of course! :)

Who has more friends? I maintain way more friendships than he does.

Who has more siblings? He has 9, I have 1...lol

Who wears the pants in the relationship? I think we're pretty equal in that department, but FOR SURE the pants look WAY better on him than the do on me!!

Who are you tagging? Carmel, Amy C., Lauren B., Jules, Gretchen, & Sheri. (come on guys, I had to do it)

Student of the Month

Guess we'll keep Jason another semester! He really is a good kid. Kind of goofy, but it's to be expected in this family!



Not much else going on - the driveway guy actually came back today to finish...ha ha! It was supposed to be finished BEFORE Thanksgiving. It just never seemed to fail that every time he'd come and get the road ready for the mat and rock, it'd snow! And then it would snow and snow and snow and snow. Now it's warming up enough that we're worried abt county road restrictions that would prevent him from hauling his back hoe and the dump trucks of rock in - so Brandon called him this morning and Ta-Dah...here he is!! Hopefully THIS time he'll really finish!

Another doctor's appointment today for me. Everything is still going really well. Well, not well enough for me to be allowed up from bedrest - but well enough that I got to come home and didn't have to be admitted to the hospital! We figure any time that happens, it's a good appointment! We'll be 30 weeks on Saturday...we're getting there by golly!

Baby M update...

Most of you know me well enough to know that I don't "do" change well. Brandon and I went in to the ultra sound appointment today believing that "Teresa" would be our tech. We've known her since...man, before Jared was born! She's great. She takes extra time, prints out great pictures, and she never makes us leave with unanswered questions - needless to say, I was thrilled last week when Angie said she got us in with her for today's appointment. Well, apparently due to this lovely weather we've been having, Teresa is stranded somewhere near Sandpoint ID - LOVELY! (Insert hyperventilating and a small anxiety attack here!)

So today "Noni" called us back and said, "I'll be doing your scan today." It honestly took every ounce of maturity I had left today to keep from flailing myself onto the floor and kicking my feet. Then I thought, "Ok, can she still be as bad as she was the time she scanned us with Joseph?" The answer...in a word...YES! I know I should probably just be grateful that we got to take a peek at our princess today at all...but I was so looking forward to the extra perks that come with having Teresa.

I honestly have NO pictures worth scanning. I have one of a foot - which isn't as good as the foot shot from last week...so I'll just refer you down to that picture again. And I have a nice picture of her
"Cha-cha"...sadly, yes, that's what our professional ultra sound technician said when she checked the baby's gender. Needless to say, the whole exam went down hill from there! :)

So, as much as I wish I had great pictures to share, I don't. I even considered just scanning some of Malorie's or Melanie's pictures and saying it was this baby...but I figure we'll probably get another scan before this pregnancy is said and done, so I'll hold out for a while.

The good news is that she's measuring 30wks (28w2d today) and she weighed right on 3 pounds...and, well, she's still a girl. So other than not being spoiled with some great pictures to share - the outcome was wonderful! And for those who want to know a little more - I'm doing fine too. Doc still has me on a modified bedrest - we made it through last week with flying colors, but I didn't expect to get a clean bill of health today. Just a "keep doing what you did last week" - so, here we go again! Luckily, I'm spoiled to have an amazing husband - and our kids are little troopers. There wasn't a time last week that Brandon came through our room that someone wasn't laying next to me either watching a movie or reading a book. We're very lucky parents...and I know what a lucky wife I am.

Thanks for all of your phone calls and emails and cards in the mail. Like I've told several of you, we were truly expecting to get to this point with this pregnancy. No, we weren't hoping to get here, but given our history, we figured it was more than likely. So we weren't painfully blindsided. We'll just keep plugging along, one day at a time for a couple more months and before we know it, this will all be a memory and little ___________ will be here like nothing ever happened! (No, we haven't decided on a name yet!)

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...

NOBODY! At least not until the Spring thaw!

This is the view out our front door. It's been semi warm the last couple of days (33-34 degrees) so a lot of water has dripped from the roof and reduced the load on the porch quite a bit. I wish I would have taken these pictures Wednesday!



Luckily for us, we don't use this as the main entrance into our home. Oh we still probably won't have anyone to dinner before Spring - the roads are a horrid mess.



The kids are excited for Grandma Lee to get home. We've had 4 snow days this week alone - She has a great sledding hill and we don't yet. Sure they could still go over to her house and sled while she's gone, but I think the lack of chili and hot chocolate keeps them from being overly motivated to do so. Only 32 more days!!