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Lloyd Adam

Born August 23, 2:30 am

8 lbs 4.5 oz 21 inches long

Happy Birthday #4 Jane!

 Oh, the excitement for this one!! Gotta say, the funnest part of birthdays really is the countdown, at least for me as the mom. Although, the excitement the morning of when she realized it was in fact her birthday and that we had some decorations and Treat Cereal downstairs waiting for her was pretty great, too!

And then she went and put on her 3 year old outfit I made her last year, I guess cause it was birthday clothes. I told her she was four now, and so she asked for a 4 shirt. So I whipped one up, and there was much four year old enthusiasm over it:

 Then Daddy took her to the fair to watch her cousin show her cow and then get ice cream and a few more things for the birthday party later that afternoon. We were having a "swim, art, science party" as the invite said. That's what she said she wanted, so we went for it. I was just glad it wasn't a princess party ;-)

Before that, however, she went over to her "Darlin's" house- my best friend from High School's mom is in our ward, and she's always been a second mother to me, so she's something of a grandma to my kids, anyway, she went over there to make cupcakes with her daughter Aubrey, who's 15ish. They did this last year, and I requested it again since I REALLY didn't want to worry about a cake in my clumsy condition. She loved it! Ironically, however, Aubrey had orange and pink fondant all ready to go with fun shapes to cut out and put on top, and Jane just wanted to put white pearl sprinkles on everything...

For her party, we invited the girls in her Sunbeam class and one older girl from her singing class. And, of course, she had to give an invitation to Emiline. 

The swim part of the party was great, I sat and watched them jump through the hopscotch sprinkler, go down the slide into the kiddy pool, and throw splash bombs, the 4 four year olds, 2 year old, and five year old enjoyed it all equally.

 

Then we moved on to Bubble painting, the art part of our party Jane and the 5 year old enjoyed this the most and/or the longest. Half the kids got bored (or frustrated they couldn't have all the colors at the same time) and went back to swimming before I could get pictures of them all blowing colored bubbles out of bowls, which was quite pretty.

 

 The last activity was the science part, which I left up to Eric to "teach." We basically made Gak/Slime stuff but we talked about liquids and solids. Guess what was Jane's favorite part? The science part! Warmed Eric's nerdy little heart ;-)

Then it was cupcakes and presents and the party was over. We let our girls play with the new toys  while Eric and I cleaned up, I made dinner, and wrapped her family party presents.  Her favorite toy she got was the Cinderella Barbie she insisted her Ariel Barbie needed as a friend. (She only has two Barbies, and Ariel is a new one she earned for following the nap rules, took her six weeks, but she did it!)

It was a great day! Even though Emiline was sick with a fever and puked 5ish times (including all over the #4 shirt on the way home from Darla's), she perked up enough to go to the party. I didn't realize how stressed I was about Jane's birthday, making it special and worried in the back of my head that we'd have a baby before or during or something. But I'm good now.

I sure love you, Jane! I can't wait to keep watching your grow and learn and discover. I hope I can be the best mom for you. Happy Birthday, "my honey."

Eagerly Doing

I'm in full nesting mode, Eric laughed at me yesterday and said "you're the only woman I know who nests with a drill." I'm, at the moment, feeling good about slowly but surely getting things done without neglecting everything and everyone not on the list. Just for posterity, and Victoria, here's a little report on that To Do list (er..."Project Priorities," I never said I had to get it all done in one week...)

THIS WEEK'S PROJECT PRIORITIES:
Build a co-sleeper, paint it, make the mattress and bedding (not even started. Well, I have the foam for the mattress in front of me to cut, but I don't want to get up to find the right cutting stuff, so I thought I'd blog instead ;-)

Throw a baby shower for a best friend from high school this weekend (Done, and done. And I think it went really, really, well. I hope she felt the love! Hopefully I'll get pictures from someone to document some of the fun things we did. I was told it was all very pinterest-able).

prime, paint, and seal the dresser we bought off Craig's list for the girls' "new" room (IN PROGRESS!!! Priming was the biggest job, painting is nearly done, and then a quick seal coat. Should be done by tomorrow morning...)

Finish readying the "Master"- i.e., move more stuff to storage, make room for the cosleeper, get uber-organized and calm in this space (done all I can until I get the co-sleeper complete. I'm waiting on Eric to have time to cut the plywood-- I'll pick up a drill or even make some miter cuts, but angling a 4x8 sheet of plywood on a table saw with my current balance and obstacle course-causing belly?? Not so much)

make a going home outfit for Baby Boo (nope. I planned one and then bought one instead, "just in case" I had a baby early and didn't get a homemade one done. Eric vetoed the idea in favor of other projects that needing getting done. It was quite sweet.)

Pack hospital bag (DONE!! Granted, I waited till 38+ weeks to do it, but we are just fine)


So that's the report. I'm also mostly done with Baby Boo's newborn stuff, still need to finish up some blankets and sew a few sleep sacs I've cut out. I've been trying, too, to spend more conscious time actually preparing for labor: cleaning up the labor playlist, meditating/relaxing, refresher reading, stretching and massages, and resting.

Camping Pictures

Camping at Twin Lakes, 37 Weeks

Boy, was this fun! I'm so glad we went! Granted, I saddled Eric with most of the prep work, gathering everything we needed and loading. I packed the clothes, food, etc, and Eric took care of everything else and the loading. He was so attentive and such a dear. It ended up being quite relaxing for me, I actually had less child care, cooking, and cleaning to do, and it was nice and cool up in the mountains. Sleeping....well, sleeping on an air mattress was a nightmare. I have a hard time getting out of our regular bed that has plenty of handholds and places to pull up with, and GRAVITY to help me out. By the time I got out of the tent (which took like 5 minutes) to use the outhouse, I'd end up with some appendage cramping that took 10 minutes to work out and walk off. Good thing I only got up 4 times...

Oh, but the kids were in heaven! And I can't really describe the joy I got from watching them and watching Eric be so in charge and building the fire and just taking care of it all and all of us. We needed to get away as a family, and camping was just perfect!

And now for pictures! Or not. I thought I pulled them all off... apparently I just pulled off the one for FB...and I REALLY don't want to waddle around to find the memory card right now.

Eagerly Awaiting

I'm getting eager, and not just cause my pelvis feels ready to fly open at the PS any time I roll over, get up from laying or sitting, and when I first start walking. But I'm also WAAAAAY behind on the list of things that need to be done for this baby. Seriously, I'm so behind. I've never been "full term" and not even had a hospital bag packed. I just like to be ready. Preparation equals peace. Etc, etc, etc.
Just for posterity, and possibly a good laugh on your part, here is some of my list, things I still really want to get done before Baby Boo gets here.

THIS WEEK'S PROJECT PRIORITIES:
Build a co-sleeper, paint it, make the mattress and bedding
Through a baby shower for a best friend from high school this weekend
prime, paint, and seal the dresser we bought off Craig's list for the girls' "new" room (that's another project)
Finish reading the "Master"- i.e., move more stuff to storage, make room for the cosleeper, get uber-organized and calm in this space.
make a going home outfit for Baby Boo
Pack hospital bag

and then there is some writing stuff I'm trying to finish, resumes I'm helping people with, and some computer things to do.

And lest you think I'm a total nut job, it's not just projects I want to get done. It's the summer/family stuff I don't want to let slip by. Like, we STILL haven't gone camping as a family. And if we don't go now, like THIS week, we probably won't make it this YEAR. I want to take time to do fun things with my girls, enjoy them, enjoy being a family before we run into survival mode for a little while. So we are going tomorrow. The really ironic thing is that planning and preparing to do something fun like this REALLY stresses me out. Not only am I squandering precious project-getting-done energy, I'm also delaying doing any projects until The Fun is over and then I get caught on the regular housework The Fun delayed and the additional housework The Fun caused. Apparently, I'm a stick-in-the-mud. Jane's been acting up a bit, and Emiline's been coming unglued at every little thing and there are those in this house that attribute it to my hermitude and their subsequent seclusion.

But the real point of this whole post is...that's right! PICTURES!!! I put together a bunch of picture of Jane when she was a baby, including a pregnant one of me, when were were expecting Emiline. Then I added to the book pictures of Emiline so we could talk about babies and where the come from. I have a super cute pic of Jane hugging my belly at 8 months. And so we did a little photo shoot yesterday with the girls hugging Baby Boo. We are all excited. And after 10 contractions in a half hour yesterday late (that, of course, went away), Eric is feeling the realness a bit more, too (i.e. freaking out! ;-)

So, without further ado:

Scipio Pioneer Day

I was thrilled to spend Pioneer Day this year in Scipio, UT, the town my dad grew up in. This is the second summer in a row I've been able to bring my little family here and I have to say, that is one huge perk of living in Idaho.

The first night there we got to experience my cousins' newish tradition of Karaoke. Holy cow was I impressed with the talent just bursting out! I had no idea my older guy cousins were so talented. Eric and I just jumped right in, of course. My kids don't know any pop songs, but boy could they dance along! They wanted to sing, too, so they just stood up there and sang Baa Baa Black Sheep at the top of their lungs. The singing went on fora few hours, long past Jane's bedtime.

The next day was the most fabulous Pioneer Day Parade in existence. Scipio is smaller than small, but the parade is pretty fantastic. And, let's be honest, it has everything to do with the copious amounts of candy that get thrown. Jane got to ride on the Monroe Cousin's float. Emiline was having a rough day for some reason and spent the parade being terrified of getting run over.

Later that night was the Scipio Rodeo, Eric's first rodeo! It's a pretty fun one, not that I've been to a lot of rodeos. But the stands aren't huge, so wherever you sit feels like a front row seat. The rodeo always starts off with the sheep riding, or "mutton busting."

I "rode" one when I was a little girl, and to my surprise, Jane was determined to ride one as well. I was kind of shocked at how fearlessly she stood in line and watched the other kids get bucked off and cry. She even got on the lamb without batting an eye.

 You can't tell from this picture, but she was so proud of the coin she won just for trying!

But it was nothing a snow cone couldn't fix.

We didn't get a picture of Emiline falling off the bleachers, any of the THREE times! She was on one, I'm telling ya. All in all, a pretty great trip!