32 Weeks Down

Well, tomorrow, anyway.

Our sweet baby will be here sooner than I even want to think about. Now I'm to the part of pregnancy that goes so slowly and yet so quickly all at once. I officially sleep like crap which makes the nights drag on and the days long and tiring. But each Sunday (I'm due on a Sunday, so I add another week each Sunday) I am surprised to realize how close I really am. I only have 8 weeks left, at most. 8 weeks! That's no time! And I'm already starting to *hope* that she'll come in the first week of May. I know. I shouldn't do this to myself. I will regret it later. I just can't help it. It would be so nice to have here here and healthy right at the first of May. Then I will have several weeks to recover before we actually have to pack the trailer and leave Pocatello. Then she will be a month old before Ben goes to Alaska and the kids and I go to Amanda's for the summer. Ok. I have to stop thinking about that or May will not be a pretty month.

We still aren't sure what to name her. I'm torn between going for an E name or not. What if we do have another child after this and it's a daughter? I just keep thinking of the Duggar family (they have 17 kids) and how they're all named with J names just because the first three kids had J names and they didn't want to leave their 4th child out in case it was their last baby. (NOT that I'm going to be giving birth to 17 kids. That woman is a SAINT!) But what if we don't have another and she is the only one who's E less? Will she even care? We don't usually call Elizabeth by her full name, usually just Beth though. So is it even really as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be?

At least the kids all have ideas on what we should name her. Will would like her to have "a nice boy name". Ha ha. And Ella always says "wets name da baby Cake!" But that's because I really would love to name her Kate and Ella knows that, but since she can't say it correctly, we call her Baby Cake. Elizabeth gets the gold star for being the most creative, though. Yesterday she and I were in the car and out of the blue she said: "Mom, let's name the baby Rusty." I, of course, said no and that maybe we could name a dog Rusty some day. "Ok," she said, not to be detoured "then lets call her Phillipe" Uh, that's a boy's name, I told her. And we don't have any Latino heritage that we need to honor. "Alright Mom, this is my final offer. Tweeze." ????? Tweeze? "Yep, it's a great girls name." She said with a smile. "Of course" she continued "I would really like to name her Little Mermaid, or Ariel the most. But Will said no."

Poor Baby Cake

Happy Easter!

And as you can see, I'm doing some spring cleaning on my blog. So, while I get things in order, I'll post some Easter pictures for your viewing pleasure.

And yes, I know I'm missing from the bunny ear pictures. All five pictures that Ben and Will took of me are blurry beyond fixing. Which honestly, I'm not sad about. I'm 31 weeks pregnant. The last thing I'm in the mood for is a picture of me in bunny ears. :)

Happy Easter!

Kid Funnies

Elizabeth: "Will, what is a swat team?"
Will: "It's like a team of special police fighters."
Elizabeth. "Oh, that makes sense. It's like a team of swat."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Me: "Elizabeth, remember when we had a talk a few days ago about you leaving tons and tons of toys in the car?
Elizabeth: "Yes."
Me: "What did I say would happen if you kept leaving them in the car instead of taking them inside?"
Elizabeth: "You said that they wouldn't be my toys anymore."
Me: "Yes, that's right."
Elizabeth: (sighs) "Oh mom, I know that growing us up is a hard thing to do. You just have to keep trying and you'll get it right some day."

Last Minute Shopping and Other Christmasy Stuff

Next year I am going to have all of my shopping done by Black Friday, I swear. It's only one week until Christmas Eve and I'm not even 1/2 done!

Elizabeth has made a very specific request for a Christmas gift this year. The problem? The one place to get it for a good price (and not 3x that amount) is, you guessed it, sold out. And the store that the website hails from is not answering their phone. Or at least I guess that's what's happening since I always get a busy signal. Since it's a toy store at Christmas time, maybe all of the employees are just hiding under their counters crying at this point.

I miss the good old days when I could have a little more say in what she wanted. It was so much easier then. Well, I guess they're still happening with Ella. All I have to do for her is show her a picture and ask her if that's what she wants for Christmas. She purses her lips, taps her chin with her chubby little finger and then screams "Nyesh!!!" while she jumps up and down.

This year, Will saw a commercial for the ASPCA. He promptly decided that he would like to forgo his Christmas gift from Santa and instead ask to have Santa donate $20/month to the ASPCA instead. What a sweetheart! After a lot of consideration, he's decided that he will earn/raise money for the Humane Society here in Pocatello and then go to their adoption day in January so that he can actually see and pet the animals that he is helping. I'm so proud of how willing to give to help others he is.

And Tera, I'm sorry to say, there will be no Gingerbread house this year. I think that if I add one more thing to my to do list I'll be heard to say "Ba Humbug" and we've already got enough of that with Ben around. :)

Two Posts In One Day?

I want it to snow. Right now would be preferable. And I'd like it to stick. I'd like the roads to have feet and feet of snow piled in the middle of them, just waiting for the tractors to come and scoop it into dump trucks so that it can be driven to the river and dumped in.

I don't know of any place on earth that does things like that, other than the little town that I grew up in. Every year at Christmas time I just find myself wanting to go back there and have it be like it was when I was little. I want to drive down the snowy streets and look at the lights on the houses and watch the snow falling in the glowing light of the lamp posts. I just want to lay on the living room floor with all the lights out but the Christmas tree and bask in it's glow. I want to sled on the giant hills of snow that my dad made for us out in the pasture with his loader. I want to drive home from my Grandma's on Christmas Eve searching the sky for Santa. And then I want to fall asleep looking out my frost covered window at the Christmas lights that hang outside.

Having little kids only makes this nostalgia that I experience every year come on even stronger. When I watch how excited they are to make Christmas cookies and watch the same Christmas shows that I watched, how they keep asking when we're putting up the tree and how rosy cheeked with excitement they get when they talk about gifts that they want to get for their Daddy, it makes me so excited that my heart almost hurts. It's like I get to experience it all over again, but with a much different perspective.

It really is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Ella's First Prayer

It was the sweetest thing ever! Last night as we knelt to say our prayers before bedtime, Ella looked up at me with her little arms folded and said "No you heppie me Mommie. Me do it mine sef." She remembered to thank Heavenly Father for her wonderful day, and all of her bessings and then she said: "Tankyou poor mine Gaddy, poor mine Mommie, poor mine Bessie, poor mine Willow" I think my heart melted into a puddle right there onto the floor. She remembered to ask for help to choose the right and to be safe even! She's getting so very grown up. It's so bitter sweet that I just don't know how to feel about it. Of course I want her to learn and grow and become who she should. But at the same time, I don't think I'd be to sad if there were a way for me to keep her as my little girl for forever and ever.

North, To Alaska!

Well, we're moving to Anchorage, Alaska. Next summer, right after Ben graduates and our 4th child is born. Yep. We're crazy! But we're really, really excited. Isn't it pretty?

That big building in the middle is where Ben will be working every day. Thankfully, he's going to be working in the Tax department of the company so his travel will be minimal (after the first year, he's required to do some Auditing at the beginning). That is really my favorite part about the whole thing, Ben coming home every night.

This is a regular occurrence in Anchorage. (That's the airport in the background)

I saw 5 moose when Ben and I were there and Ben saw way more than I did. And that was just in the neighborhoods. Apparently it's not uncommon for bears to do the same thing.

Right now we're just trying to figure out the best way to get us all up there. There are tons and tons of options. The only thing that we're sure of is that we're going to sell most of our stuff in order to replace it when we get up there. But now we have to choose whether to drive, ferry, or fly up there (or more likely, choose which combination of the three is best). Will is voting for he and Ben driving or ferrying up with what things we do take. And that way, as he puts it, they can have some real "man time". Which apparently consists of watching football, spitting at any time and frequently, and not showering. If that is how they plan to go, then I'll be glad to fly, even if it means that I fly with 3 little kids and have to change planes twice.

But no matter what we choose, I'm just so proud of Ben. He has worked so very, very hard to make this opportunity happen for our family. It really is an awesome opportunity. Even if it is the opportunity that may cause this blog to be telling you, five years from now, that we're all moving to New Zealand!