It's coming!

As you can see, from my baby ticker over to the right, I've only got a few more weeks until this bundle of joy enters into this world. I'm really excited to hold him and see him, but I'm even more excited to be DONE with this pregnancy! It's been a hard one! What is it with 3rd pregnancies? I've heard it's been harder for others too. Maybe it's age, or maybe it's the other 2 kids that make it harder to rest and take care of yourself. Or maybe it's just coincidence. I don't know. Well, yesterday I went to the doctors. While there we talked about my kidney stones and my doc is terrified that I'll have another round of them before I'm done being pregnant. It COULD happen. She told me that because of that, she refuses to let me go past my 40 weeks, which is fine by me. She just really wants me to be done being pregnant. At least we're on the same page! Anyways, she even told me she would induce me at 39 weeks, if I want. SO, now I'm contemplating...do I do it or not? It would be convenient. It would be a week early! BUT, will it take forever and will my body be ready? I can tell that my body is getting ready though. The baby has definately "dropped" a bit. I have this horrible pubic bone pain and pressure every time I walk. I talked to my doc about that and she said that was a good thing. That means the baby is right there and moving on down. SO, I may just go into labor on my own before 39 weeks. I have to admit, it's kinda fun to go into labor on your own. But, with 2 kids, who knows if we'll have a babysitter when we need it? I mean, if it happens it happens. I may have to be induced anyways though, so it couldn't hurt to just do it. I just don't know! Well, either way, it's coming soon! Too bad we're not more prepared. I bought some paint the other day, so Jer will be doing that this weekend. The crib is up. The changing table is ready. The baby stuff is out. It just all needs to be put away and organized. I guess we're not too far off from being ready. I haven't taken any belly pics recently to show how HUGE I am, but my good friend, Jessica, took some great maternity pictures of me a couple weeks ago. I'm sure I'm bigger now, but you can get the general idea of how extremely large I am. If you want to check them out go to: http://www.feelyphotography.com/index2.php#/gallery1/1/ She's an awesome photographer! Check out her other portfolios. Well, wish us luck! Hopefully I don't go insane with 3 kids!

Cat Trauma

Last week our poor cat, Shadow, underwent some trauma...she got shaved! The poor thing's hair got really tangled and matted and we absolutely could not get it out. We had been trying daily for a few weeks to cut out mats and brush her, but it finally came down to this. We ended up bringing her to a groomer who had to give her the "lion cut". We've had her for over 4 years and this has never happened. I really couldn't believe it! Well, now we're probably going to be obsessed with brushing her, but at least we won't have to put her through this embarrassment again. Poor kitty!

Chuck E. Cheese's!!!

This past Monday, for FHE, we decided to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's! They had never been there before, so it was a big deal for them. I think Sam got invited to a birthday party there once, but we couldn't go. Anyways, we started the night by ordering a pepperoni pizza and drinks. We then got our 40 tokens and played about every game there was to play. We ended the night by getting some ice cream. It was a great night! I'm really glad we decided to have a night out on the town with the kiddos!

Not sure why the pics are fuzzy... It's driving me crazy! It didn't look like that until I uploaded them. Who knows???

Transitions

I only have 5 more weeks until this baby should arrive!!! Let me tell you all, I'm not a happy mommy right now. I'm very irritable and extremely impatient with my kiddos. I'm trying really hard to be a happy, positive mom but it's hard. Don't get me wrong, I have my good days too. But, the bad days seem to be a little more often these past couple weeks. I'm just so uncomfortable, it's ridiculous. Well, enough complaining...In preperation for our little man to come into this world (!!!) we needed to get Samantha and Parker comfortable in their new night time surroundings. Meaning, new beds! Sam has been in a toddler bed since she was 2, and Parker has been in his crib. Well, this past week we decided we needed to move everyone up and put them in new beds so we could have our crib ready for the baby. We bought Sam a new twin size bed and gave Parker the toddler bed. I have to admit, I was terrified to put Parker in that bed! He's such a busy boy and so crazy, I thought it would be impossible. Luckily, I had a back-up plan just in case. My good friend, who isn't using her crib anymore offered hers to us if Parker refused the bed. Samantha was a sinch to get into it, but they are SOOO different!

Anyways, we started with Samantha and she totally shocked me. She cried for probably an hour and a half! She just kept saying that she missed her bed and that her new bed was too high! What a girl! I really didn't think it would be an issue. So, we had to lay with her and tell her all the good things about having a bigger bed. That only lasted the first night and now she's great with it. Now for Parker...The first night was a struggle as well. It took us 2 hours to get him to sleep! We tried laying with him, we let him cry, we layed with him again. Finally, Jeremy was able to lay with him and get him to fall asleep in his bed. Now, imagine Jeremy laying in a toddler bed! Pretty funny! He did it though. He was determined. So, lucky us, he slept the whole night and didn't get out of bed! Yay! Since then he's been great! We've been able to get him to take his naps and he even went to bed for Grandma Klein last night! Jer and I thought for sure we'd get home from our night out and have Parker wide awake from resisting bed time. But, not the case. Thanks Grandma Klein!

So, mission accomplished. Everyone is comfy in their new beds. Now we just need to put the baby's room together (paint, furniture...) and we'll be ready! We have everything, it's just a matter of doing it. Yeah, we procrastinate a bit. I guess when it's your 3rd, you have that "been there, done that" frame of mind. But, we're so excited! Just get here already!!!

March Snow!

Seattle isn't known for being snowy...but, this winter we sure have gotten a huge dose of it!!! We had our OUTRAGEOUS snow storms that lasted about a month in December. And since then we've had snow every once in a while for a day or so at a time, but just a trace or so. Well, now it's March and I really thought it was over. I was wrong. We got hit pretty hard the other day and it's still sticking around. It snowed about 3 inches at our place. Doesn't sound like much, but this was all within 1 hour! Yeah, 1 hour! After that, it was gone. It hasn't snowed again, but it's been so darn cold that we still have snow in our yard. I'm soooo ready for spring! Actually, skip spring. I need some HEAT. Let's get onto SUMMER!

Samantha decided, when it first started, that she needed to be in the middle of it all.

Our street in the midst of the downpour

View of our backyard

Our Little Mermaid

I recently enrolled Samantha into swimming lessons again. She's actually been doing this off and on since she was 1 1/2 yrs. She loves to swim! When she turned 3 she was able to do the classes all by herself, without me having to dive in with her. After doing the first beginners class 3 times (!) she's finally moved up to the next class. I think she may finally be getting it, for real. She's doing wonderful and I wouldn't be surprised if she passed this class the first time around. We'll cross our fingers. It's kinda a downer when you have to pay for the same class over and over again! Here's some pics I took of her the other day. They may be kinda fuzzy, due to me zooming in so much, but you get the idea. Good job Sam!

Now I need to get Parker going. I've slacked a little on him. It's hard to be in the water when you have other children around, ya know? I guess we'll be doing night classes and Jer will be home with the others. Fun!

Getting Started...

Ok, I decided to join everyone else and do the blogger thing. This is still under construction though. I'm trying to figure everything out and transfer everything...hence no pictures. I get to upload those still (or whatever!). I've been with wordpress, but only because of my husband. He started that. But, I have no idea how to use it really, so Jer always gets to change my backgrounds and fun stuff like that. I think blogger is much more user friendly for me. SO, change your link, because I'm HERE now!!!! Thanks!