I have such great friends! Already coming to the rescue with some of my wish list items! Thanks ladies.

So I had my 36 week check up today.

Little Bean is doing good. I'm still measuring 2 weeks behind so they'll be doing an ultrasound next Thursday. Other than that I'm up 21 pounds, feeling huge, back is aching, feet are killing me, but baby girl is looking good! : )

I'm beginning to feel a bit anxious about things. As sleeping gets harder and harder for me I'm really not looking forward to many sleepless nights coming my way. I'm really freaked out about breast-feeding. I had a terrible time with both Bella and Brynn and I'm just not looking forward to going through it again. Up until now its seemed so for off in the distance, but now that I'm looking at 3 weeks, I'm starting to freak!

I'm praying, praying, praying she is an amazing sleeper and calm tempered baby. How will Brynnie adjust to this, will Bella need more attention too, why can my mom only stay a week, etc....

Ok, enough, I am going to try to enjoy these 3 weeks and soak up every ounce of beautiful weather and time with my two beautiful girls that I can!!

Here is my big, lovely self with 3 weeks to go!

My Wish/Check List.....

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. My time is dwindling away! There's still so much I wanted to get in......

So there are some things I would like/need to get or do before Little Bean makes her arrival.

* We really want to have one last summer bash with all our friends before Little Bean comes, but who knows if that will happen with our time running out....

*I need to get baby girl a baby book, yikes! So much for getting some of it filled out beforehand.

* I need to get our bags packed (I did pack up baby girl's things today : ) )

* We need some baby swings. We have one that doesn't work anymore. I like to have two so you don't have to lug it up and down the stairs if you have a swing lovin' baby. May need to see if hubs can get our one working at least....

* And maybe a spare bouncie- but that's what friends are for right? : )

* I'd love to get a Itzbeen! Although perhaps there's an app for that, there's a app for everything these days right? How about one that gets your newborn to sleep through the night.

* Locate our video camera and make sure we've got a blank tape.

* I'd liked to get my nails done with the girls before the birth. I did this with Bella before Brynn was born and she just loved it and it was a special time for us.

* I need to get newborn diapers!

* I need to get and put batteries in all of our baby gear!

* Get the baby car seat positioned in the car so the girls can get use to the new seating arrangement- we did this a couple days ago and so far so good!

* I need to barrow some baby bottles from friends! : )

* I think I need new bibs, mine sure have seen better days! I had some spitty babies!

* Speaking of spitty babies. I need to invest in some new crib sheets! They've been through two little ones and its time to move on. : )

* I want this diaper bag- in daisy pink of course. : )

* I'd like to get some maternity pics, nothing crazy or anything, just a couple sweet pics of me with my two big girls and maybe some with the hubs.

* Am I forgetting anything!?

* Oh yeah, I still need the perfect name for my sweet baby girl!!

Take the Plunge Part 2!!!

So the last couple of weeks the hubs and I have been busy planning for a very exciting event at our church. Last year were also asked to help put together this event. Here is my post from last year.

Our church, The Chapel, has several baptisms throughout the year. Every summer they like to make a big celebration around one in particular to encourage inviting others to experience a baptism and to show support to our church family. The last two years the hubs and I have had the wonderful privilege of being asked to help plan this event. Last year, we had the blessing of watching 30 people make the decision to let Jesus Christ be the ruler of their lives. When asked again this year to help coordinate we were hoping to continue our activity we created last year and make it an annual tradition. Unfortunately, another event at our church decided to use our boat race idea and it took place two weeks before our event. So the hubs and I went back to the drawing board to come up with something new and fun for this year. We had to laugh when we saw the brochure for the event this year and across the top it said: From the creators of Floatentag (the name of our boat race activity) comes the Water-Athalon! : ) We felt like we had a lot to live up to. We kept our theme of Take the Plunge and went with a water themed event. The hubs is oober creative and I like to organize and plan, so together we can pull together an ok event. : ) The hubs came up with the idea of a Water-Athalon and came up with 3 fun water activities. The three activities were: A Bog Dive- this was a search in the church's lovely "pond" for brightly painted pop liters and milk gallons. The one with the most found won a $10 itunes card and the one that found the special gold bottle got two free movie tickets. Second event was water archery- which just consisted of throwing water balloons at a target, simple for anyone to do. Person with the most accurate shot got a itunes card and the person with a good try but worst result also got an itunes card. The third event was a belly flop/ splash contest- the church acquired a water trampoline from a local rental company at no cost for the contestants to leap from. We volunteered 3 well known people in our church as our celebrity judges and asked them to grade each jumper. We gave prizes for best belly flop, biggest splash, and looked like it hurt the most!

It was a smaller crowd this year since we only had a few weeks notice to begin advertising for the event and making announcements about it and at first we were very nervous people weren't going to participate. But soon enough people started coming out of the woodwork and volunteering. It was really great when a bunch of the high schoolers got involved and got people pumped up about it!

Before the Water-Athalon, there were fun water activities for the kids and bouncies. And everyone was asked to bring out their own food and tailgate a bit before everything started up. It is such a nice feeling of community and great way to get to know our church family. Following the Water-Athalon were the actual baptisms. I absolutely LOVE this part of the event. Each baptizee either reads, or has read, their testimony and how they came to make the decision to accept Christ. They are humbling, inspiring, and moving. There was a family- mom, dad, and daughter- that got baptized. After losing their son/brother they knew Jesus was the only way they could carry on and now as mom struggles with brain cancer they know Jesus will be by their side. There was a 12 year old girl who said she was not a nice person and was even mean to her friends and wanted to be more like Jesus. A man that struggled with drug and alcohol addiction that credited Jesus for helping him clean up his life. Oh and so many more. Altogether we had 17 people get baptised and afterwards two more came forward because they felt the Lord telling them to take this step. Just amazing. Sorry to be so wordy and picture overload but I wanted to share this amazing event with all of you!

Here is the hubs setting up for the Bog Dive, placing the painted liters/gallons all over and under the water:

The girls were SUCH GREAT troopers. They were out from 12:30-7 with no naps and not a whole lot of attention from the hubs and me, and over all were so well behaved!

Pausing for a snack.

Ah, such a precious girl! She is quite obsessed with her new Phineas and Ferb dolls.

Here are the contestants jumping in for the bog dive!

The girls loved cheering them all on.

What a great, and handsome, MC we had for the event. ; )

I think everyone really enjoyed the festivities!

Time for water archery!

Here are our celebrity judges getting ready for the belly flop/splash contest!

(associate campus pastor, wife of our worship leader, and the campus pastor)

Looks pretty good....

Apparently the judges weren't impressed. : )

Hard to see this one but if you look close you can see his feet straight out, a definite straight belly flop!

Check out this form!

And our last contestant, winner of "Look like it hurt most" award!

And then we had the special time of hearing 17 people (and then 2 more) and their amazing stories of how they came to know the Lord!

I hope the girls will enjoy this event with us for years to come!

Good and Bad......

Well I just can't get my act together enough on Mondays to post something fun with pictures. Just wanted to hop on and mention, 4 weeks from today we will be welcoming our newest baby girl into the world!! I'm starting to feel more and more nervous about things now that things are approaching so quickly. 4 weeks?!

I was quite sad today. Having had two February babies, I never experienced retaining water or swollen feet (any suggestions on ways to help with these things?). Well with this lovely baby, I have learned about both of these things. It gets especially bad when I am extra active- like running a garage sale for 3 days or coordinating a baptism event at our church like we did yesterday. So today, just as a precaution, I took my wedding rings off. I'd hate to have to have them cut off or something. This made me very sad. I've got them on my necklace but still, sniff.

Anyway, baby coming soon and I'll eventually get my body back right?! I have an appointment Friday so be sure to check back and see how things are going.

Sweet Neighbors....

For my last doctor appointment my wonderful neighbor offered to watch the girls for me. It was so nice to not have to lug the two of them all the way down to the office and she has 3 kiddos of her own!

(some pics of the kids together at our neighborhood Easter egg hunt)

Bella looks up to Zoe and Rex so much.
Brynnie sharing her Easter eggs with Ray.

While I was at the Dr. the first thing the girls did was of course raid Zoe's dress up clothes. After finding the perfect outfits Ray and Brynnie helped Miss Nicci make some yummy cookies, while the big kids played.

Nicci sweetly sent me a little pic while I was gone of what they were up to.

My poor girls' life is being documented by cell phones these days. : )

Thanks Nicci for watching my girlies!

An Actual Post......

So a couple weeks ago we put our two water bugs in to swimming lessons. Both of them love the water and Bella, in particular, is fearless about trying anything in the water. With that said we are wanting her/them to learn the actual art of swimming, without the assistance of a floatation device. So we decided to enroll them in swim lessons this summer. Unfortunately, the hubs and I are not too impressed with the lessons- at their ages they just don't seem do more than they both already know and can do- but the girls are absolutely enjoying every minute of them, so that's what counts! Here are some pics from their first class:

Bella still had her lovely mosquito eye at this point. : )

Bad Blogger....

So momma is too fat and lazy these days to get the actual camera out, but here's what we were up to today via her cell phone. : )

Another Little Bean Update....

Ok, let me back up. So two weeks ago I had an appointment with ultrasound. The ultrasound showed baby girl looked great, measured good, and fluids were where they need to be. They said she is 3 pounds, 12 ounces which is average for 32 weeks. Unfortunately, I had lost a pound (bringing my total to only 12 lbs.) and I was measuring about 3 weeks behind (29 weeks). So my favorite Ob wanted me to do another ultrasound today since now is right about the time I lost my fluid with Bella and just make sure things were still ok. Unfortunately, when the appointment was made they just made it a Dr. appointment and not ultrasound. My Ob is out of town and another Ob in the office just said to stick to the appointment. I let my nerves get the best of me and didn't just put it God hands which you think I would have learned by now. The doctor I was going to see today is very casual and "oh everything is fine type." He was the one that almost sent us home the day Bella was born by emergency c-section. So I was just nervous seeing him and having him not be real detailed in his exam. But most of my fears were put to rest quite quickly.

I went right in and the nurse weighed me. I was up SIX POUNDS!! So, either last week the nurse (or scale) was not working correctly (which I'm hoping was the case) or else Little Bean and this momma just had a humongous growth spurt in the last two weeks (so I'm not crazy for feeling huge! : ) ). So that brings my total to 18 pounds. I am still measuring 2 weeks behind but since my weight gain is back up and the ultrasound did show her at a good weight I feel much better. Just going to leave it in God's hands and try not to worry about it. I made my next two week appointment with another one of the Ob's that I really trust and caught my fluid loss with Bella so I'll feel better after seeing her in a couple weeks (after that we go weekly, yikes!!). Just going to enjoy feeling my little one kick around like a crazy woman for the next 5 weeks!

*Thanks so much to those of you that told me you were praying for us. It meant SO much to us. Obviously, our prayers are continuing to be answered. Thanks so much friends!*

Here are my ultrasound pics from 2 weeks ago:

You can only see her head and precious profile. During the ultrasound she was moving her mouth and sticking her tongue out, it was quite entertaining! : )

Little Bean Update- Warning: this post contains a lot of complaining....

So I wanted to give a quick update on our little baby girl, but will be updating again tomorrow after another appointment. Here is how I'm looking these days at 33 weeks (missed week 32)!

At my last appointment I was almost 32 weeks. I had actually lost one pound (???- which brings my total to 12 lbs., I'm thinking maybe they just weighed me incorrectly at my last appointment?) and was measuring almost 3 weeks too small. Thankfully, we had an ultrasound scheduled- due to my history of fluid loss and measuring small with my other pregnancies- and everything looked great with her. My Ob asked where I was hiding this baby! I honestly have no idea how I can be measuring small and losing weight because I feel absolutely enormous and feel like my skin can't take much more.

During this pregnancy I have been trying to really cherish every moment. After our miscarriage in September, I've just learned how very precious this little life in me really is. Also the possibility that this is could be the last time I am pregnant makes me want to soak up every moment too. Well as we get closer to the big day that is getting harder and harder. I am sleeping terribly these days- takes me forever to fall asleep and I wake up a ton. I also get terrible back pain with my pregnancies and the more active I am during the day (and with two little ones how can I not be!) the more I am hurting by the evening, so I'm struggling a lot with that. Also, although this is a great thing and I am thankful for it, this little one is quite the mover and, when she's up, has me quite uncomfortable!

Okay, enough venting. Overall things are going fabulously and I am thankful for a healthy pregnancy and little one! My Ob asked me to come back in in two weeks for an ultrasound just to make sure things are ok but when I got the reminder call it turns out they just made me a regular Dr. appointment. I called my Ob today and asked if I should still get an ultrasound but she wasn't in today and the nurse just said to come for the appointment because things looked okay in the last ultrasound. This has me a bit nervous just because this was exactly what happened with Bella and we just happened to speak up and she was born that day. So I just ask that you guys pray for us tomorrow and our appointment. Pray that God gives us the strength to speak up if we need to. I'm sure things are just fine, I just trust my usual Ob and she is not who I'm seeing. Thanks for checking in and praying for us! I'll update tomorrow with how it all goes down and a couple ultrasound pics from the last one.

What on earth happened?!

One of the things that I love about our home is our backyard. Its large, fenced in, and has so many great things for the kids to do, that don't involve messing up my house. : ) They've got a sand table, water table, kiddie pool, sprinklers, swing set, club house, golf club sets, and a neighbor's trampoline to enjoy.

Now one of my complaints about our home, is our backyard! We only have one small tree off on the side of our house. But the neighbor behind us as a bunch of giant trees that all seem to flow over in to our yard. The hubs tried to trim them back once and she yelled at him. The branches that hang over create a huge shaded area over a big chunk of yard for pretty much the entire day. Also where these branches hang over, our yard goes down into a valley, so with all the rain we get/have been having the water just collects and sits there. Now these two things, shade and water, makes for one thing in our area- mosquitoes!! And its not just dawn and dusk that they're bad. If you walk over there where its shaded they'll just swarm out of the grass.

This has made it really hard for the girls to enjoy our backyard. For some reason they, especially Bella, react terribly to bites. She doesn't get them small, when she gets them, they're huge!

So yesterday afternoon, following nap time, we went outside to get some pool time. I was on my way out to spray Bella with bug spray, you know just in case they got bad. As I sat down next to her I observed a mosquito biting her right by her eye. I swatted it, but I was too late, obviously....

Anybody know of something, besides the pricey machines, that keeps mosquitoes at bay, at least from our deck area?! At least she's not letting it bother her too much! : )