For the record

Baby #4 at 37 weeks. Nothing to report yet--I have an appointment this week though! I've been measuring right on target until a week ago when I jumped by 2" ahead (38" at 36 weeks)...that was pretty crazy. How am I feeling? Dead. Tired. I wake up and fall asleep by 9 am and then again at around 3. Not too much heart burn--baby is low, I'm a waddler. I'm swelling like crazy--some days I can't close my hands because the joints are too swollen. And shoes are not comfortable. The doctors aren't worried though because my blood pressure is perfect. I've definitely got the carpel tunnel issues like I had with Xander--so if you see my hands up high it's because I'm trying to get blood to circulate. I am so grateful though that we've been blessed by a super mild summer! If I had to be pregnant during the summer, this is the summer to be pregnant!


Also, Ben asked me to grow my hair out awhile ago--this is the result so far. It got super short when a lady in Oregon did not listen to what I said back in January 2010 so I kinda wanted to grow it out too but I never thought I'd let it get this long. This is longer than my hair has been since jr. high. All through high school I was a shoulder length gal, and college would be more defined by chin length. This is my hair after an inch trim the other day! I'm pretty proud of myself and I try to actually do it too. I braid it, diffuse it, put it in pony tails, curl it, straighten it--I don't know how to do much but I'm trying and Ben loves it. It's a fun change for sure!

Poor Violet

This is how I see Vi these days...she stretches her neck back and arches her back so that she can see around the belly and get attention. It will be gone soon Vi, I promise. Although my attention
may not be. Sorry little bug!

Overheard

My older 2 are kind of starting to play on their own...here are a few things I've overheard:

(X & E are playing house).
X: Well, don't worry wife if you are really old. 31 is old.
E: yeah
X: I'm old too, I'm 109
**Then I realized that he was pretending he was in a wheelchair and Eliza was taking care of him.
______________________________________________
We made some notes to send to people the other day and I was showing the kids how to address the envelope. I told them not to write on the front of the envelope. I got back and Xander was! Grrr. I looked at what it did, it looked like this:

Xander Webster
116 Gisler Ct
Folsom, CA 95630.

I couldn't figure out what he had done. Then he showed me. He said look mom, I put a dot so the mailman could take a breath. (He had put a period at the end of the zip code). We are always getting after Xander about stopping at the end of sentences so I couldn't help but laugh.
_______________________________________
Caught this on the phone when I looked up from reading to find this! Precious day!!

Hide and Go Seek

One Sunday afternoon, Xander & Eliza decided they wanted to play hide & seek. Ben and I were exhausted so we would help them hide and then sit down. Eliza was REALLY good at finding Xander quickly...except for one time. So this one time, Xander decided to take a laundry bucket from no-where and ...

What we thought was SO obvious (because the room he took it to was EMPTY and there hadn't been a laundry basket there before!) took Eliza quite awhile. Good job Xander-man--you finally stumped her!

Closet Cleaning

My mom decided that she didn't need to hold on to our old Halloween costumes. Boy were my kids excited when she said they could have them! It cracks me up to see them in these costumes that I remember my siblings wearing--and some that I wore. Don't mind me in the pics--I didn't know I was in them until I uploaded them.

Camping!

This is what our kids look like when we take them camping:So we decided to do it one more time before I pop...

We hiked up to the lake and enjoyed the view. The kids & Ben went kayaking twice (we borrowed Grandpa's kayak) and despite the freezing cold water, they loved it!


We also found the last patch of snow...so on July 6th, we played in the snow!Xander looked for trees to climb--he loved the big logs that were horizontal.
Grandma & Papa surprised the kids with a visit! They ate dinner & dessert (they brought up drumsticks, YUM!) with us and taught the kids a few campfire songs. The kids run around singing, The Princess Pat and Boom Chica Boom all the time now.
Everyone loved exploring in the dirt, especially Violet!

We roasted marshmallows one night--I got in big trouble for forgetting the gramh crackers.
We have learned a lot about camping as this is the first summer we've really been able to do it. We now have a list of things we need to find to make our camping experiences a little more relaxed/enjoyable. One of those things is something to put our babies/toddlers in to eat.

Since Intel got July 5th off, we decided to have Ben use the rest of the week as vacation and we took off. It could not have been a better week to get out of the valley because it heated up BUT, it was absolutely gorgeous where we were! The campsite was empty too because everyone had been there over the holiday weekend and then left. We had our run of the camp. Xander biked all over, Eliza ran around and Violet dug all over. It was super enjoyable and super relaxing! I'm VERY excited for the day when all the kids are older and we don't have to constantly be on top of them but just being outdoors makes our kids SUPER happy, so I'll keep camping. My favorite part of the trip was after the kids went to bed, when Ben and I could sit next to the fire and read The Hunger Games second & third books: Catching Fire & Mockingjay. We both wanted to finish the series so we read it aloud together and had a blast doing so. We're trying to find a book to do this with again soon!

Happy Birthday America!

We were bored one day-so we made special 4th of July glasses to watch the fireworks with. So dorky and yet SO much fun!
Our court is HUGE 4th of July celebrate-rs! They had pre-parties, parties, and after parties! Everyone brought out toys, pools & slip and slides out for the kids. And we had a huge pot luck! I made strawberry tarts that were quite the hit! Eliza & Xander always take over the power wheel when our neighbor has it out. And it is HILARIOUS to see Eliza drive it. She has figured out how to go but not how to turn so when she realizes she needs to turn-she stops, gets out of the vehicle, picks up the back end of the truck and turns it in the direction she wants to go. LOVE it!

The kids loved the fireworks this year. I think Xander even did--I don't think he even plugged his ears. Our blocks fireworks last for about an hour and a half--and I don't mean one at a time, several fireworks were going off simultaneously. Neither X or E had done sparklers before and they both enjoyed that. We only had 1 little mishap when a spark landed on Xander's shoulder and burned a tiny hole. :/ Whoops!

Overall, it was a great holiday and a great way to get to know our neighbors--can't wait until next year when I can enjoy being outside in the heat a little more!