It's a...

little man!! That gives me a big 0-3 record for guessing the gender of all my babies! Although, lately I was starting to feel more like he was a boy--I don't know why.

Anyway, we're super excited, and I'll have to try to take pictures of the ultrasound prints to post. Everything looks totally perfect with this little one, so we're very relieved and happy, of course. He was very squirmy during the whole thing, so it was kind of nice to show Jared what's going on in there pretty much 24/7. He couldn't believe he was moving so much and the poor technician was really working hard to get decent pictures and measurements. She confirmed that his head is really tucked low and deep down into my netherparts, so no wonder things get a little uncomfortable to say the least.

It was an amazing reminder of the miracle of all of this, and I have been quite emotional about it, and I promise it's not sadness that it's a boy. I think it is quite a mix of things, probably a large dose of hormones, too, but anyway, it is just a lot to take in!

Oh, and they could see that the placenta is attached at the back of the uterus, so it is not anywhere near the C-section scar from before, so that is good. I guess it can also mean that you will feel the baby a lot more, which I definitely have been, so that's kind of fun.

So, that's the happy news! Yay! And, hooray that I'm half-way there!

Christmas 2010

Hi, everybody! Just thought I'd post some of the Christmas pictures since it's 3 am and I can't sleep--which is SO rare for me. I can usually sleep anytime. So, Sara had decided that she wanted to wear her new church clothes on Christmas Eve for some reason, but I loved it, so I tried to get some cute shots. I didn't make John change into something presentable, however, and he wanted a Jedi action photo shoot. Okay, then!


And I'm not sure exactly what this pose was...but look closely at the Darth Vader snowflake behind her. Jared's got mad snowflake skills and the kids loved it!!


After setting out the milk and cookies, we "heard" a noise in the chimney and found the jammies that Santa's elf had sent early! Wow, they LOVED this.



Luckily, Santa's elf knew that John is "into" Star Wars, and that Sara needed a new pair of "baby" jammies!


A little discussion of the nativity and an egg nog toast...by the way, Jared was floored at how well Sara knew the story. It was really cute how she knew all the things the angel said and stuff from our little Joy School version of it (which we never even ended up doing when we had the party because the kids were too crazy that day, but I guess they had learned something)


And we decided to let them open their gifts from/to each other before going to bed. It was a lot of fun helping them choose and buy gifts for each other. Sara especially knew she wanted to get John some more Star Wars figures and I seriously think she was more excited than he was opening them, which is saying a LOT because he was very excited!




And then Jared couldn't wait any longer either, so he let them open the gifts from him so he could open the gift from them. I, on the other hand, like to savor the surprise I guess and wanted to wait. Anyway, this is when they gave him a book he had hinted that he had forgotten to put on his list, so we sneakily bought it for him but wrapped it in a bigger box so he wouldn't know it was a book.

And the poster that Jared got for John, and somehow we didn't get a picture of the Zhu-zhu pet that he got for Sara.

And the actual morning...
Gasp! Santa left a boot print in the fireplace!

And here are the pictures I took, although I'm realizing that I missed a lot of stuff. You may notice a slight theme with John's toys, just maybe.

This helmet has been super funny...Captain Rex if you're not up on your Star Wars...
and his blaster...



Sara got a couple more "rooms" for her dollhouse, which is now about full to capacity. She also got a doll bed, which she loves, and a Barbie dentist set, and a set of pots and pans and cooking things from me to go with the food set from John (how did I not get pictures of all this?). These add several hundred mini pieces of things to her room, which I have yet to find suitable storage options for. Sigh.

This is a picture of the General Grevious dual spinning light saber that is actually totally cool! (And that big ball, hand-painted ornament right behind him had an unfortunate meeting with it about 2 seconds after I took this picture...) Anyway, it has "realistic" noises and lights and the sabers can be separated, so this was quite a hit! I got John an "old school" type Star Wars video game thing that plugs right into the TV, which has also been a favorite. He and Jared are quite good at the 5 different games, and Sara and I, well, we like to watch and "help."


There were many other gifts not pictured here from Grandparents, etc. Books, puzzles, coloring books, fleeces, some clothes and other goodies...oh, and Jared's sister Melanie had our family and did an awesome job! She sent marshmallow guns for all of us, along with a super cute hand-crafted book about the prophets and Toy Story 3 and an amazon.com card. Thanks, Mel! I'm sorry I haven't taken any pix of the gun action yet--I'll have to next time we have a war with them! Jared quickly mastered the gun and then set about to personalize each gun and help the kids get the hang of them. Again, like the video games, Sara and I need more practice, but we still have fun!

Not surprisingly, Jared mostly wanted some books and CDs, although he also got a GPS, which he has really been loving and put the Darth Vader voice on (although it was a tough choice from Pres. Bush, which was funny, too). He also got a stainless steel water bottle, which has turned out to be a total favorite. He got me an electric blanket, so now I really have no incentive to ever get out of my recliner, but it's so cozy! I also got a painting to hang in my completely un-decorated bathroom, but took it back after I changed my mind about it. I still need to do something in there. I also got new jammies, perfume, and a photo album, which I really need to fill. I haven't kept up on making photo albums at all, and I've really been wanting to. I also got some unexpected gifts from piano students that have been so fun. I got a giftcard to a nursery, and I picked out a plant and pot to keep on my kitchen table, which I have been loving so much! I think it's a nice reminder of the world outside without snow.

Speaking of which, I think this past week was supposed to be the coldest on record. Ugh. I tried to take the kids sledding today, but it was SO bitterly cold, they just didn't last long. Oh, and it maybe didn't help that on John's first, and only, run down, we didn't scout the location very well, and what appeared to be a steeper spot on the hill was actually a spot that had a rock wall disguised under there, so he had a surprise 3-4 foot jump that he took on his belly. Yeah, he didn't like that too much! Oops!

Anyway, Christmas was great, and we all feel very spoiled and blessed, although John already has a list of more Lego sets he wants...not that I blame him. They are cool.

Well, maybe I can get back to bed now. Night!

Birthdays and Blizzards and Ipads...Oh, My!

November and December--gee, who can remember back that far? Just kidding, although they were kind of a blur. I've already mentioned/whined about not feeling 100% with this pregnancy, so anyway, I'll get on with the post. Although I'll add that I've been feeling better now in some ways, but getting big and uncomfortable already. We'll find out the flavor pretty soon, though, so we can't wait!

Anyway, John's class had a sock hop on the 50th day of school and I went in to "help" which is code for enjoy myself thoroughly! They had to do some activities like make these bead necklaces with 50 beads (which is the table I helped with). They also had to draw 50 of something and color a car and then they got to hula hoop. That was out in the hall, so I couldn't see it, but John really wants to get one to try and practice. In fact, that was something I was thinking of getting for Christmas. Oops! After the activities, they got root beer floats and then the teacher put on some records--really--and they had a little dance. It was so cute!


Also early in November, my brother Jason came to visit us since he had a conference in Minneapolis. Somehow I didn't get a picture of him, but I did get a picture of the kids' favorite thing about him--his Ipad and Iphone...he bravely let them play the silly games on them and then tried to convince them to ask for them for Christmas-ha, ha! We had a great time with him and showed him a little of the town, and then he skidaddled before the weather turned too nasty!

I had been planning to chop Sara's locks, so I wanted to get a picture of how long they were before we did it...

And I don't remember which storm this was, but this seems to be a fairly typical view out my back window these days...
And I don't think I ever posted about the squirrel circus that Jared built from the kids' designs, but here it is covered in snow. He really did have each of the kids think of a squirrel feeder and draw it and then they built them. We really had quite a regular group of squirrels all through the fall, especially after we put the jack-o-lanterns out and they used those as homes and then dinner.

See? This had a whole design in it, but they ate it. Can't blame the poor little guys though. Jared has such a soft spot for squirrels for some reason; he even left them a stack of newspapers in our shed so they could use them to make their nests up in the loft of it. Not a bad pet, though...


And someone decided to turn 5 somewhere in there...
Evidently, she was overcome!
Oh, yeah, the poor thing had to wait till after church and a meeting that both Jared and I have to be at before we finally got home and did birthday stuff.

Cute outfit and princess polly pockets from G&G Morton...
and lots of clothes, fairy dolls, play dough, markers, and treats from G&G Whiting...

and John picked out this big art set for her and now asks pretty much daily if he can use it. :o)

Is that mean that I got her a scooter and soccer ball, even though she won't be able to go outside for six months?
And then I finally pieced together a party for her, which was kind of a trick. She kept saying she wanted a Star Wars party, but we had just done that for John, and I don't know, it just didn't seem right somehow. We finally got non-themed invitations out, but she did pick Star Wars silly bands to give away, so I was still at a loss of what to do with this party. Anyway, she finally said something about doing all the Disney movies, so that's what we attempted. We played a Robin Hood archery game, an Alice in Wonderland croquet game, a Captain Hook pretzel pick-up, a Mulan "find the pennies in the rice with chopsticks" game, and one I didn't get a picture of, racing John's old Cars down the stairs in rain gutters. She also wanted to invite two of our "piano kids" as we call them, who are 12 and 9, which was genius! They were so helpful and fun for the kids--I hope they had a good time. The only silly thing with the party was that I did it on a Thursday night since Saturdays can get so crazy in December. Well, anyway, almost everyone had to go early for something else they had and one friend was sick, so that was kind of sad. Anyway, I think they had a fun time.







I must say, this rice thing was so funny. I put 50 pennies in there and then let the kids keep what they found in take-out containers, and they acted like I had given them the moon. They were so amazed that I was letting them keep the pennies!! It was too cute, and too cheap. Really you should try this for something sometime, although I'm sure older kids would not be so ecstatic about 8 pennies, but these little ones loved it!

And I boycotted stressing over a cake and let Sara pick out an ice cream treat instead. I consider myself fairly competent, but cake decorating isn't really my thing, and I'm coming to terms with it--slowly. These little sherbet cups were pretty good actually!





This picture reminds me that we haven't done thank you notes yet. Sigh. Thank you to everyone! She has loved everything so much!

Oh, and I also didn't want to do Sara's party on the Saturday that week because I had a Christmas Recital that day. However, the weather had a different idea and we had to cancel. I was so bummed! Some of my students had some quite impressive stuff ready and some of the teeny ones were just too adorable, but it totally DUMPED on us--I forgot what the total was that time--17" I think. I try to pretend these things don't happen and block them out before, during, and after. Anyway, even the next day it was all still a mess, so church was canceled. Thank goodness for the kindness of our friend Scott, who came over with his snow blower, and we eventually got clear of the mess. We joked that he probably saved Jared's life.

Can you tell that the snow out on the balcony is up to John's chest? Yeah.

I'll be back with the rest of 2010 soon!