Our New Guy

He finally came!
The wait was well worth it, he is 9 lbs and 21 and 1/2 inches of darling.

Check out those chubby cheeks!
(and those parched lips...I worked hard for this little guy. That is another post all together)

It was love at first sight for all of us.

Byron threw his hands in the air and did a little dance when he heard it was a boy.
Miriam is content with either because she knows how great a little brother is.
She did mention we could have a girl next time.

Thanks for all the well wishes on facebook, phone calls, and texts!
We feel blessed in so many ways for so many reasons.

For those waiting for news...

We are waiting too.
Disappointed? Well, at least you can tie your own shoes!

Four days over due today, and the baby wasn't looking ready to come so we decided to wait a bit longer. It's not easy to be patient, but really I have to admit these last 4 days have been very mellow in a good way. We have made no plans, started no projects, are taking things day by day and have found it's an extremely peaceful way to live.

I think I am at the surrendering stage. I can't make this baby drop, I can't bring on contractions. I just monitor movement, and wait. I will be given a stress test on Thursday (7th day overdue) if the baby doesn't come before, and then we will make our next move.

(Yes, I am walking....yes we have tried just about everything the internet has to offer to induce labor, the things we haven't tried we don't want to try)

Our mellow Saturday was spent at the zoo. I think 70% of the women there were pregnant.

We saw the rhinos Princess and George try to do some bowling. Princess was being a baby, but George got a pin down.

Then M and I went to Costco, and Jamba Juice, and I cleaned the kitchen and did laundry.
(See? I am being very active...not a slug just waiting and napping although I did take a nap, it was glorious!)

My husband, Mr. Macgyver, helped the neighbors with a minor plumbing emergency. He went to his cub scout meeting, then he rigged up our broken garbage disposal so I can run the dishwasher while we wait for the replacement to arrive. He's so great. He is the one who has been amazingly patient through the last 4 days. Living up to his childhood nickname "mellow fellow".

So we wait...and keep walking.

Names and things

Upon seeing my huge belly, people inevitably ask two questions.

Is it a boy or a girl?
and
Do you have names picked out?

We don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Darin wanted to be surprised when we were expecting Miriam but I couldn't handle it. If it was a girl, I wanted the cute clothes, bows, and shoes given at baby showers. I wanted to know with Bub as well but, with two genders worth of baby clothes at my sisters house (ready to be sent down when the call is made) I figured it was a good time to go old school. I am so rarely surprised in life this may be one of my only opportunities!
Although, I believe most people think it is a girl, I have no feeling at all one way or another.
We shall see!

As for names, we are working on it! Darin suggested that this baby may not come until we had some idea of what the name will be. That was enough motivation for me. We were up till midnight on Familysearch.org looking at our family genealogy charts searching out names. Both Miriam and Bub have family connections, which is important to me. An added benefit is it cuts down on our choices which is good for Darin and I because it takes us sooooo long to make decisions.
Here is our list:

Girl Names

Lanice "Lanie" or "Lana"
Margrethe "Meg"
Lucy
Esther "Essie"
Adelaide
Nicholine
Maren
Rebecca
Clara


Boy Names:

Soren
Anders
Martin
Peter
Issac
Jens
Sven
Merritt
Clinton
Frederick
David
Henry
William


Possible middle names:

Wilfred
Linnell
Erastus
Howard
Egan
John
Cooper

Pretty exciting time for us!

Anytime now....

Now that I have my pedicure taken care of, the baby is welcome to come anytime. I told the woman giving the pedicure that I needed happy birthing toes and she suggested this wild pink color. I like it, I may not have picked something so bright, but I already feel like I am on display so I might as well live it up!
(Please don't make fun of my toes...it hurts their feelings)

We have been gone since Easter so this is the first week the kids wore their new Sunday finery.
Anticlimactic to wear Easter clothes 2 weeks after Easter, but they did look cute. We had to purchase Miriam's first slip for this dress, and she couldn't be more excited about it. You could tell it made her feel pretty and mature as she pranced to church...that was until she saw the neighborhood boys running and took off running after them to catch up!

Spring Break

What made this Spring Break so great?

Darin and Grandpa took the kids on outings 2 of the 3 days we were there!
"Sweet fancy Moses" (as Jill would say) I love it when the men take the kids on adventures!

Miriam loved climbing, you can read about her adventures HERE.

It's been a good long while since Darin has done any climbing. I was glad he got a chance to get back to it, since it's going to be even longer before I get back out there with him. Although, I should go belay for him because I would make a fairly secure anchor at this point.

Grandpa has been putting the rock climbing pass we gave him for Christmas to good use.

The men took the kids to a migratory bird refuge, while the "older girls" went to lunch.
My father-in-law joked about how we were welcome to go out to Wendy's or MacDonald's, but of course we were treated to one of the nicest restaurants in town. It was lovely!

That night we drove a few miles north for Casper's ice cream. Soooo good, and such a cute place. Bub was so excited about getting "2 goops!" of ice cream.

Sunday I had not one but TWO naps after church, and I got to watch Ace of Cakes. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and fun conversation.
That's a darn good day.

You know your 6 year old has been watching too much food network when she tells you how many different ways there are to make shrimp and grits.

Easter Morn...and day...and then Monday night

My kids of course, were the first ones up that morning. Whether my kids go to bed at 8, 9, or 10 pm they almost always wake up before 7 am. Don't you feel sorry for me? On the other hand getting up for school is easy.

General Conference Break

then....

The Hunt and The Loot!
I have to thank my sisters for scrambling around to make room for my kids in the hunt. We weren't planning on spending Easter with my parents but had a change of plans the day before.

Sharing the spoils and being together. The kids think they ate a ton of candy (and they ate plenty to be sure) but what they didn't realize is there were at least 5 adults scavenging from baskets without them noticing! I ate my fair share of peanut butter cups!

General Conference Break

We had a wonderful ham dinner at my brothers house to celebrate his birthday ( I am still dreaming about those rolls Kelly). I love being invited to dinner at Erik and Kelly's house.

The next day we broke in those new Easter swimming suits. Thank you Dad for taking my kids in the water...I so didn't want to wear a swimming suit at this point in my pregnancy. People are kind, and most of them, even complete strangers, want to talk to me about my "delicate state", but the stares and the conversations while in a bathing suit...well no thank you.

I also completed 10 freezer meals and some pesto sauce for when the baby comes.
So, we may not have a name, or clothing washed, or spot for the baby, my house may turn into a complete sty as I live in a state of perpetual exhaustion and hormone craze, my kids may be neglected and turn into TV junkies but we will not starve!

(I am hoping if I expect the worst, I will be pleasantly surprised when its not so bad)

Friend Hunt

A fun hunt with friends, and lunch after wards. What could be better?


Spring here is so fickle, you never know if you will be hunting eggs in sandals or snow boots!

We are getting ready!

We were all fooled in turn, and no one cried...that's a darn good April's Fool Day!

*the kids cereal turned blue when they poured milk on it
*I had salt on my toothbrush
*Darin had jelly beans in his shoe
*I told Darin I was in labor after going to my doctors appointment, but he wasn't, even for a second, fooled.
and....we have tons of snow just in time for Easter Egg Hunts!

Bub really got into the spirit of things. He ate Uncle Mark's jelly beans (actually Mark gave them to him, but he must of thought he was just suppose to hold them), he took a few drinks of my soda, and put apple seeds on my chair.
After each event he would say "I apell foo yoo! I apell foo yoo! ha ha...ha ha" while doing his signature Bub jig. I can picture him really getting into this holiday in the future.


Our big news of the day is that Miriam passed her swimming test! The goal was to have her swimming by the time the baby came, and she did it! I feel a little more confident thinking about taking 3 kids swimming....well besides my having to actually wear a swimming suit in public.
No more swimming lessons till next winter Hooray!!!