Final stretch...

Hubby thought for sure it would be today, and I even thought it possible last night. Felt really bad and had to hand off the kids the SECOND Mike walked in the door after work. But I'm doing ok today - no contractions. Which is good because I have more to do around here. Mike took the day off and made me nap and take it easy. He did school with the kiddos and now is at Home Depot w/Katie. Josh is sleeping and I'm trying to get Jordan to do the laundry for me, but it's not working very well. ;o)

Anyways, just wanted to check in and say "I'm here and Ok."

If any of you think of me this next week... please pray for peace and a good delivery. Thank you!

in God's grace,
Alicia

9 days until DUE DATE!!!

Ok, so in reality baby could be here from a few hours up to another 3 weeks... or so. But there's only 9 days left until I reach my DUE DATE! Woohoo! I can't believe it!

Mike thinks baby will be here by the 28th, I'm kinda hoping baby will stay put until February. I would like a Feb. baby. Maybe a "groundhog" day baby! :o) However, if baby wants to come early... then I'm ready!

I feel pretty yucky right about now, I can tell body is getting ready for baby... but that doesn't mean too much, delivery could still be a ways off. I have my next appt. on Thursday, so I will up date when I get back from there.

Now I need some sleep... so I'm going to sign off now. ;o)

My Jordan! :o) I love this picture!

Date Day/Night!!

Today was a great day!!! My parents & aunt (with her kiddos to help too) came over and cleaned house and watched the kids from 1-10pm today so that Mike and I could get out for our last date before baby!

We had a late lunch/early dinner at The Claim Jumper, saw the movie "Ocean's 12", picked up baby announcement making materials, did some other fun shopping and also the grocery shopping.

Now I'm home, tired and I think I did a bit too much cause I'm in a bit of pain. So off I go to the sparkling clean bathtub to take a nice bath, drink my tea and rest.

The meaning of life...

There is another blog you need to read today, it is titled "The Meaning of Life" by Dana. It is short, but says all it needs to. Bravo Dana!

~Alicia

Tsunami Disaster Prayer Link

Check out this prayer that a woman wrote for the Tsunami Disaster.

16lbs. and 7oz.!!!!

Good grief!!!!!!!!!!! A woman in Brazil gives birth via c-section to a 16lb. 7oz. baby boy!!!! Link to story is HERE.

Just a quick snooze...

Joshua missed his nap today, but after dinner he fell asleep on Grandpa's hand!!
He was a T-I-R-E-D boy!!!

Any day now...

I had my 37/38 week appt today with the midwife and baby Ryan is still head down, great heartbeat, very active and a touch posterier (which explains why my back hurts today). I have some more exercises to work on getting Ryan to move anterior so that labor can go a bit smoother. I have been told that baby can come any time now, but I haven't had a child before week 39, so I'm guessing I have at least 10 days.

I finally purchased the rest of the "must haves" today! Hooray! My parents are coming over on Sunday so that Mike & I can have one last big date before baby gets here. I'm hoping to go buy a few extra baby things and announcements that day. I don't think we will take in a movie though... we tried that a while back and I was soooo uncomfortable in the theatre chairs. I would much rather get a movie and watch it here at home after the kids are in bed.

As for my desire to begin "nesting" the other day... well, that just didn't happen. Everything looks pretty much the same, except I did some of the general cleaning... and so I need to get a move on that tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.

And so... off I go to get laundry started! Woohoo. ;o)

School, Nesting, Etc...

Even though today is really only considered our "Tuesday", Jordan is done with all his subjects except Spanish & Science. He will finish that up with one big test tomorrow. He finished up the workbooks a week early and spent yesterday & today doing the BIG end of the workbook tests. Which he passed with flying colors! :o) So we are ending school early today and they get to play while I prep for baby.

I woke up last night with a good sized contraction that made me panic... WAIT, I'm not ready!!! I have to clean the house and I still have NO Newborn Diapers!!! And so today I will try to tap into that "nesting" thing that I have only heard about, but never really experienced. The house isn't bad, but it is NOT where I want it to be. And so with that I should get off the computer and begin on the most important room: mine. Since I plan on laboring in my room, I want that one to be the nicest. I bought some new candles to light when I begin labor, so I need to have those set up and then finish up on the drawers/vacuuming... I just washed the bedding so I have a few more days before I have to do that again.

K, off I go... hope to post more later! :o)

Joshua

Week Two of school DONE!

Ok, we have made it 2 weeks and we are still ahead! Yay! Jordan is doing great and Katie is beginning to really take to her ABC's & 123's! She even wrote her first name all by herself the other day!! I was so happy! :o) We all know how to say the letter A & B in sign language and we also know how to say Red Apple & Alligator in sign language & Spanish. Joshua will even sign the "red apple" sign for me if he is feeling in the mood to comply. ;o)

We had a light dusting of snow again today, but for the most part it is just about gone. Kinda hoping for more, kinda not. I want to make sure that my midwife can get here without any difficultlies when it is time to have baby.

The kids are in bed early and so I need to go clean up for a bit and maybe watch a movie before crashing. I had too much caffeine today and I doubt sleep will come any time soon.

In God's grace,
Alicia

Guess baby Ryan's birth weight...

I have a poll over on my TaylorBaby website, give me your guess as to what you think he will weigh. :o)

Baby is NOT breech, head down... u/s today...

RYAN MICHAEL!

Jordan & Katie with their snowman!

The first snowman... Joshua was almost the same size. :o)

Looking out my front window Sunday morning at 7am...

Jan. 10th Update...

We finished off our first week of school on Sat. the 8th, that went really well. Jordan is ahead in all subjects, he gets a sticker for each lesson he completes that is EXTRA to his daily work... so far in one week he managed to get about 20 stickers. Once he fills up the boxes we will be taking him to the Dollar store. I was going to take him every time he got 10 stickers, but he is moving to quickly and so I think we will have to play it by ear.

We had snow this week that was a blast! I will post some pictures in a bit. The kids have been outside a lot with their hot chocolate in hand. ;o) They made 2 snowmen... both are destroyed now, I got a picture of one.

I had my midwife appt. on the 6th, baby is still breech. I go in on the 13th to see if baby has turned by then. If not, then I will be on my way to get my first ultrasound. I have about 24 days until due date now and was beginning to panic a bit, but I stayed up last night until 3am getting the bedroom ready for baby & preparing all the homebirth kit stuff I need to have handy. I'm just about ready now, only a few more things are needed. :o) Feeling MUCH better.

I need to run for now, our new week starts tomorrow, I have a bunch to do to get ready for it.

in God's grace,
Alicia

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

Today went GREAT! We managed to stay ON schedule and completed ALL my goals for Jordan and most of everything for Katie. We schooled from 12:30-6pm with a few breaks in between. Jordan zipped along in the 2nd grade work and even did 2 lessons in one subject, he had time to spare in each subject except Math... that was only because he began to dilly-dally.

Katie and I worked on her name, ABC's, numbers, all the basics and some Spanish and ASL. Josh even joined in and was very smitten with the letter "A" and the number "0". He would point to the "A" and excitedly exclaim it's proper name... we shall see if he can remember it tomorrow.

In general (not including Jordan's boxed curriculum) we are studying these this week:
ASL - Red, Apple, Alligator
Spanish - Rojo, Manzana, Caiman, Feliz Ano Nuevo, Cero, Circulo
NewYear's Day
Circle Shape
Letter A
Number 0

We have a bunch of books on Apples & Alligators and then a mixture of basic concept books that we will try to read each day.

Ok, the 2nd day of school is usually a tough one and so I better get ready for bed (it is really 1:54am, but I wanted this post to show up on the correct day and so I changed the time of entry to 11:44pm). :o)

by God's grace,
Alicia

Joshua

Age Gap...

So last night was my first REAL experience with the whole "generational gap" thing... I was talking with my much younger cousin who is 11yrs. old and I was discussing about how when I became a Christian I took a bunch of my books that were not edifying/bad and I burned them. She then asked me if I meant that I put them on a CD or if I really burned them like in a fire!!! LOL! Just had to share. ;o)

2005!

Happy New Year!!!!!

It's 2005! We had a fairly quiet evening... my dad came over to help Mike build shelves in our storage room and my mom helped me shop for some shoes for the kiddos and then watched over all the little ones (including Cameron) for the evening while I worked on my homeschool stuff. Later my aunt Jayne & her kids and John & Wendy came over and we had pizza & cookies. Then we all went outside at midnight to watch the fireworks. The kids had noise-makers and slide whistles... Joshua did NOT like the fireworks and wanted to go inside, so he and I stood inside by the door peeking out at everyone. ;o)

I'm in my 9th month! I can't believe it. And we still have no name decided for a girl. Guess we better get on that.

Ok, I need some rest. I hope all of you are doing great and had a wonderful New Year's Eve.

by God's grace,

Alicia