The Anticipation of Christmas~

Alex bought a new camera the beginning of December.  Our camera was many moons old, and we had to replace the batteries every time we used it.  For real...  I just went through over 200 pictures that he took in the week before Christmas!  Oy, oy!  If he keeps that up, I'm going to have to teach him how to edit them and blog;-)

Here are the winners from the week before Christmas!

Isla spruced up for her school Christmas program~

Sibling love~

Daddy made yummy cookies~  

Isla sang at big church~

The kids lounged for me while I got stuff done early in the week~

Pretty girl~

We made a dash to Grammy and Poppy's house!  Isla made herself right at home~

We saw Santa Clause~  

Oh, the anticipation~

Grammy has bar stools~  Fun!

Cousins came for a bit~

Cousin love~

Tuckered out Isla after the visit to the farm~

Daddy helped us make a Gingerbread house~

Teamwork~

Sweet boys~

The final product~  

Christmas Eve~

Fundue and Bubbly when we got home~

Love her~

He's pretty fun too~

Yummo~

 Whew!  What a week full of great memories!

Baby #3 Update~

I've hit a nesting spree in our house, so I figured I should document a little bit of Baby #3s progress before it is over;-)

My baby bump at 25 weeks~

Latest Doctor Appointment: I failed my 1 hour glucose test at the beginning of December.  I have never failed with either of the other two, so I had not expected that at all.  This last Monday I went and sat for 3.5 hours in the OB waiting room and had 4 blood draws to see if I did in fact have gestational diabetes.  My dad has been a diabetic for 45 years, so this weighed heavy on my heart.  They called on Tuesday and said all was fine, and I passed.  What a sigh of relief!  I got to hear Baby Girl's heartbeat, and she is doing great! We are measuring right on target, so we should see her on or around March 27.  I go to the doctor again on January 7, and then I'm already to every 2 week appointments!

Weight Gain:  I've gained 17 pounds now at 27 weeks.  I've never gained more than 24 pounds at the end, and it is not looking optimistic that I will stay under that with 13 weeks to go.  I'm sad about it, but it is more important that I grow a healthy baby.  I will just have my work cut out for me once she is born.

Cravings:  I haven't really had any cravings with this one.  Perhaps it is that I'm just too busy/tired to really think about a specific craving.  I miss wine-A LOT!  I'm pretty sure I will be bringing a bottle to the hospital with me to celebrate the arrival of the little Miss;-)  The upside is that our family budget has benefited from my lack of wine consumption, though;-)

Complaints: I hurt...  all over...  Baby #3 is much more painful than the other two.  Perhaps it is due to being 32...  My back hurts, my hips kill me, and I feel like my pelvis is splitting in two pretty much all of the time.  I've never been a medicine taker, so I just grin and get through it.  I'm still sleeping okay, which is amazing, but Baby Girl comes alive as soon as I lie down at night, so I'm trying hard to enjoy her playtime during my sleep time;-)  

Nesting: We have put the two big kids together in bunk beds, and we are slowly transforming Isla's old room into the nursery again.  I'm digging out what baby stuff I can find, and we are slowly getting ready.  It's amazing how much more prepared I feel having done this a couple of times before.  

To Do List: We still need to purchase a new car seat for the baby and a few clothes to get us started.  I picked my car seat out yesterday, so now we just need to purchase it, and we will be ready;-) 

Thirteen weeks to go until we see our little addition!!

 

   

The Christmas Story~

It is no lie that I absolutely love Christmas!  Everything about this blessed holiday brings me a great deal of joy.

It is the morning of Christmas Eve, and Alex has scampered off to work for his last work day for a week. Yippee!! Our presents are wrapped and underneath the tree, my children are watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and I am finishing my morning cup of coffee. There is an overwhelming peace with my soul today.

We will spend our day at home with our family and then attend Christmas Eve service with our church family.  Christmas Eve service is my most favorite service of the year, and this year is no different.  It is such an awesome reminder of the reason for the season and the impending celebration of life given to a tiny baby so many years ago.

Our church children made a recreation of the Christmas story, and the incredible journey the birth of Jesus brought to Mary and Joseph.  It is sweet to see our church children recreate this amazing story, and I am particularly partial to the littlest lamb and King Herod!

Blessings to you and your family as you celebrate the birth of our Savior!  May you have a peaceful and joyous Christmas!  Merry Christmas!

Family Pictures 2014~

We hadn't take family pictures since 2012.  It was time, and I'm excited for how well they turned out!  It took 20 minutes and T.H. Peterson Photography to make them amazing!  Our blessings are many!

Photo Catchup~

I haven't uploaded pictures since before school started.  It's really not that many, though, because I haven't taken many photos;-)

Shortly before school started, I took the kids back to my hometown to spend some time with Grammy and Poppy and Uncle Seth.  We took the kids swimming in the local pool!

Isla and Uncle Seth

Isla and Grammy

Isla enjoying snacks at the North Pool

Rowan snacking at the North Pool on our final pool visit of 2014

The first day of school for 2014-2015. Rowan as a 1st grader and Mommy in
her 11th first day as a 7th grade teacher.

Go Panthers!

Halloween!!  

 And the baby bump at 20 weeks and 2 days with Darby #3.

Baby #3 at 20 weeks

And for comparison, because I feel humongous, and it is fun to look back!

Baby #1 at 20 weeks (aka Rowan)
Don't ask me why I showed a bare tummy.  I'd never
do that today!!!!

Baby #2 at 20 weeks (aka Isla Hope)

Goals Update~

1. Pay off Jolie's undergraduate loan by October 1.

If I said we had 100% of the loan left to 

pay when we made the goal, we are 

now down to  35% 0%of the loan left.  

I paid this off sometime in September.  It was 
amazing to complete all of my school payments.
Every ounce of my college education is paid
for in full!  

2. Establish a will

I abandon for 2014.  Isn't going to happen.

3. Read the Bible in 1 year

FAIL!  I will complete this in 2015.  
I'm going to start again where I left off
in hopes that I can finish it.  I'll have
read the Bible in 2 years.

4. Read 30 books by December 31, 2014
I have read   27 32 books so far in 2014. 
I finished this before school started.  That is 
the only way I have completed it.  I am almost
done with Gone Girl, but that is the first book
I have completed since school has started.

I'm Back;-)

Wow!  The last post was sometime in July.  Has it really been 4 months since I have blogged?  Life has gotten in the way of my blog for sure.

Sometime in mid July we found out we would be welcoming a third baby to our family in March.  What an amazing blessing it was considering the fact that we had really given up hope of having any more children last March after several months of failed fertility help.  Little did we know more children were in God's plan for us, but it was on his schedule instead of my own.

School started, and we were in the whirl of life with one in public school, one in daycare, and me teaching and coaching.  And then I got sick and tired and more sick and more tired.  At some point, I really did think I just might die from nausea and exhaustion.    My routine was teach, coach, try not to puke, come home and go to bed for 12 hours. The alternative was I just might vomit all night long.  I look back and wonder how we did it.  On a good night, the kids would crawl into my bed at bedtime, and I would wake up enough to read a book or two to them before Daddy tucked them in.  On a bad night, there was no reading, and I just slept through everything until the next morning when we started again.  It was awful, and I felt like a failure at pretty much everything I was supposed to be doing.  I just couldn't do it, though.

I took the famous nausea pills, but they did little for my nausea.  Then a midwife gave me another concoction of B6, ginger pills, and Unisom.  Still, I found no relief in my constant wave of nausea.  I ate crackers, pretzels, ginger ale, and Sprite like it was going out of style.  They simply told me I was over 30, and it would get better somewhere after 14 weeks.

Eventually, somewhere around 16 weeks pregnant, the nausea subsided, and I sort of rejoined the land of the living.  It is amazing we made it, and my husband is still here.  My house was a disaster, the kids ate more frozen pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than they probably have in their entire lifetime, and I slept.  What a miserable 3 months.

So four weeks later, I almost feel as though I have my life put back into order.  Almost.  My energy has come back some, and I have resumed my normal Mom duties!

Yesterday marked 20 weeks pregnant.  I should probably post a picture to document my growth, but I'm sitting here in sweat pants, so that isn't happening today;-)  Monday we go in for our 20 week ultrasound, and I've been praying that we have a healthy baby!  Baby Darby is due to arrive around March 27!