The Tummy

So I have about a zillion pictures on my camera, patiently waiting to be loaded onto my computer and then shared on here. Why must they wait there? Because I am lazy. The camera is upstairs in my bag; the computer is downstairs.

You can see how this is just a logistical problem.

Eventually, I will remember to grab the camera out of my bag and bring it downstairs with me.

Anyways, I have some super cute tummy pictures I want to share-or at least save in one spot for quick view by family and friends (and me!).

And when I say cute, I do mean it. I seriously have the cutest pregnant tummy in the entire world. No stretch marks, and perfect curvy-ness. Can you tell I love being pregnant? I do.

I absolutely love my body when I'm pregnant. I almost wish I could just have the big belly the whole entire time, because really, this is the most fun part for me.

I feel absolutely gorgeous and glamorous in pregnant clothes and I just love showing off the tummy. And I don't really feel quite that way when I'm not. I guess in a way, part of the adoration I have for my cute belly is the fact that all my curves and lumps are quite expected, natural, and considered so beautiful by everyone, myself included.

I'll have to work hard on keeping the body euphoria going, even after Champ comes, though I will probably do what I've done after the last two pregnancies and just go crazy making sure I work the weight off (breastfeeding helps like crazy) and then still poke and prod my lumpy belly with a sigh.

So, I have roughly 90 days left to enjoy the freedom of not sucking in, and walking with my belly proudly stuck out. And all the work I'll have to do after? Oh so totally worth it for the cute little guy I know is cooking in there.

I swear I'll get photos at some point. Eventually.

Living With Boys

I grew up in a house of girls.

The majority of my childhood my dad was off traveling for work, so we really only saw him on Saturdays and Sundays before he would be taking off again for the next week.

So yes, it was 4 women, and thus there were lots of Barbie play, tea parties, dress up, and makeup demos. I would even play with all my baby dolls and pretend they were my daughters and take them for grand walks in the woods and tea parties under the huge pine tree with my sisters.

I didn't even have any cousins or neighbors nearby, so beyond interacting with boys at school (which, of course, could give you cooties until late middle school/high school) I had NO idea what kind of play my boys would do.

They have quickly informed me though, about how BOYS play, much to my dismay.

You see, there are no quiet tea parties going on in our play kitchen. NOOOOO.

Instead, they are building bombs to get bad buys, poisoning food to get bad guys, and cooking stuff they declare to be better than the veggies I try to stuff in them on a daily occurrence. Usually all this cooking goes on with quite a LOUD fan fare; the results usually have food thrown about everywhere, the play table turned topsey turvy, and an impromptu battle against bad guys takes place involving the poor play cupcakes.

Occasionally they will take the baby doll we have on a ride in the grocery cart, but usually the baby gets covered in items they pick up around the playroom, like the play food, blankets, baskets, and trains, and when they are done, she is usually tossed into the play oven.

I am a bit worried about their future parenting techniques.

Needless to say, I am a bit out of water with boy stuff. Most of what they play makes me cringe and I often find myself repeating:

Calm Down!
Slow Down!
Be Careful!
Be Gentle!!
Don't Throw THAT!
Don't Jump On Your Brother!
NOT IN FRONT OF THE STAIRS!!!

Those are pretty much all the phrases I need to get through my day.

Lately, their new game is "wreaking ball".

What, may you ask, is wreaking ball?

It is when one guy stands braced in the doorway and the other one RUNS at him AS FAST AS HE CAN and attempts to knock down the guy in the doorway.

The first time they played it a few nights ago, I didn't quite realize what they were doing, because all I caught were glimpses of them as they ran by the kitchen, and then I would hear hysterical laughter, so I figured all was good.

Parenting mistake number one-o-one: I should have remembered that just as equally dangerous as silence is hysterical laughter.

Later, when Bill got home he saw what they were doing and thought it was fantastic, and when I asked for more details on why he thought them running down the hall was so great, he pulled me out to the living room to show me the impact moment.

It was quite lucky Bill was there because I just about lost it.

I mean, really, THAT is a GAME? And they kept taking turns and doing it over and over and over....and over.

I was certain someone was going to get seriously injured and wanted to put a stop to it; however, Bill reminded me to step back and let them be; they are boys.

Which, I trust my husband with, since he and his brother were, apparently, just like these guys.

And they WERE having fun. And taking turns. And Sharing. And getting energy out.

It was just giving me a heartattack to watch, because, after all, it was a lot of WORK and PAIN to get those guys into this world, so I certainly don't want them to break each other.

So I had to go to something a bit more calm, like washing dishes.

Back To Blogging

Awhile back, I forgot to renew my domain, and lost it, which made me feel really sad about blogging. I lost a lot of my readers, and my feedburner information was all messed up-and the thought of going through and trying to contact each and every individual follower I had once had was just an overwhelming thought.

Enough, that really I have slacked off on blogging here the last few months.

But you know, it hit me the other day, that in a way, this was a very freeing slip up.

I don't have people bugging me to do reviews, or sending me stuff I just have to send back if I don't want to review, or even mess with trying to keep up with deadlines to get writing projects in.

I'm back to blogging for me, and my family, which is what this whole blog started as 4 years ago. And that makes me super duper happy.

I think I only have a handful of regular readers now(and one is my adorable husband) and I'm really not feeling so stressed about trying to get my ranking up, or my SEO all hyper active in Google.

This year, there is a re-defined purpose to my blog-to get back to the basics of why I started writing. As a way to meet people, as a way to chronicle the changing years of my children, and as a fun outlet for me.

Even though I am a little sad I definitely won't get tickets to the Thomas Theater Show, or Disney On Ice, or get paid trips to Blogging Conferences in Disney World, I am pretty happy to be back to writing purely for me.

Happy New Year, 2011

Do you know, that THIS year, will be 10 years that my sweet husband and I have been together?

Amazing and awesome, I know!

We have had such grand adventures, and while it feels like we just met not long ago, at the same time it seems as though we have been together forever. It is a wonderful feeling to have.

And this year, we will welcome our third son, our little Champ, into the world, for that I am SO very excited.

I've got the nursery pretty much done, and the bassinet is patiently waiting by our bed with a few outfits I am debating as his coming home gear.

100 more days and he will be here. It is getting really exciting now that we all (the boys included) can sit and watch my belly move. Little Dude and JR get a huge kick out of feeling their brother move around. I am so excited to see them all play together; our three little musketeers.

We were lame for New Years, and spent most of the day either working (me) or doing construction in our basement for the new pantry (Bill). And by the time we go the kids all settled and into bed after watching "Despicable Me" (awesome movie, by the way) we realized our cable box wasn't working.

So we sat up and talked about years past and years to come, and ended up going to bed right before midnight.

While not at all exciting, at the same time, I think it was one of my favorite New Years.

Though it does figure that I tried unplugging and plugging in the cable box ONE LAST TIME this morning before heading over to Time Warner Cable and demanding a new box, and it started up like nothing was ever wrong. Even though we had plugged and unplugged it a zillion times throughout the weekend. Now I am debating if I want to still go get another box, or just skip it and go with the working box, since that would mean not having to take everyone out with me. Hmmmm.

I hope everyone had a safe, peaceful, wonderful New Years, and enjoy the year to come.

On Being Pregnant a Third Time

Even with varicose vein troubles with this one, and acid reflux problems with the previous two, I have to report the third pregnancy has been my favorite so far.

Why?

For one, I'm no longer a "new" mom. I'm sorta a "pro" at this point. Little unknowns,like "how will I remember to feed the baby at night???" Don't have me worried like I did back as a new mom to be, pregnant with my first son.

I have come to realize that the baby WILL let me know what it needs.

Having a second child enabled me to realize that I can't break the baby. And it is OK if he eats a cheerio off the floor. That was certainly something I would have swooned over with my first, by with the second, I would shrug and go, well, the germs will make him stronger....and at least he isn't crying.

With the THIRD boy on the way, I have to say, I feel completely relaxed about it. A sorta "I got this" kinda of sentiment. Sure, I know three is way more outnumbering to me than two, but on the flip side, the two have each other to play with, and unlike when I went from one to two, I already know what a shock the whole juggling thing will be. In fact, I do really anticipate the juggling act to be a bit easier with the third, just because the other two do play and entertain each other so very well.

When Little Dude was not yet two, we had JR, and let me just TELL you how much of a shock that was, so suddenly juggle entertaining a VERY active Toddler (that couldn't talk yet either) and a very fussy preemie. OMG is all I have to say to that. And thank GOD (and Fisher Price) for this swing.

But now, with Little Dude being 4 1/2 and JR being almost 3 when Champ gets here, I really do have a calmness about it that I certainly did NOT have with my other two. I could sum up the last trimester of my other two pregnancies as a "bundle of nervousness" , but this one, so far, I still just feel excited to hold a little baby again, and in a way, I am looking forward to the midnight feedings.

Perhaps because I know they will be gone all too quickly, and this will probably be last time to experience them.

Time And Again

How in the world has December almost gone by without me finding the time for a single post? Wow. I really can not believe it is the 20th already! That just seems crazy to me. Time has certainly come up on me way too quickly this year!

For a baby update, our little Champ is growing perfectly, kicking and moving tons, and likes to scare me with sudden, hard jabs. It is pretty fun being at this point; I love feeling him moving and growing.

My varicose veins are doing horribly though, so while I will miss being pregnant when this one is over, I will also be happy and relived, as I am not sure I can handle the veins getting any worse. Apparently they get worse and more painful with each pregnancy-not sure, but I think it will take a super long time and lots of memory loss for me to want to take on this pain again. Let alone if it keeps getting worse at the same rate it has with each pregnancy...that thought makes me cringe.

But we will see. In 3 years when this guy is saying bye and wanting to go to school I might decide the pain isn't too bad and decide we need another baby....we shall see.

On a Christmas update, Christmas is ALMOST here!! WOW! I am so crazy excited. Since the boys can't read yet, I'm safe to say they are getting what they asked Santa for. JR is getting a bike and Little Dude is getting a trick scooter. Supposedly you can do jumps with it-not sure I want him doing that yet, but I'm prepared with all the safety gear, and hopefully he won't be able to do any jumps for a few more years. I can't wait for the kids to open their gifts!!

Starting mid January I won't be watching Emily anymore, as we get ready for the baby to come. I'm really sad about that; she has been so fun to have around. I just bought some new sparkly red nail polish so I can make sure we have one last "manicure" moment together. Sigh, girly stuff is just so fun to do with her. I am hoping it works out that I can watch her again after the baby comes, but we will see with that, too. I'm sure it will be crazy enough with three boys, let alone adding a fourth to the mix all day as well. We will see.

We will see-that has certainly been my motto here lately. It goes for Bill's job as well. We have been a bit nervous, as the construction industry just has not been strong lately; hopefully they will land some work, and if not, hopefully he will still be employed until the baby comes. I don't even want to think of what kind of insurance nightmare it would be to try to change things just before the baby comes.

With work, I have been SO super busy-and that partly is why I have not been able to make it to my own blog much. I am glad we have been busy, but I am again nervous about how having the baby will force me to back off on my hours; especially if Bill gets another pay cut or gets laid off...but then, we will see.

So, the new year has many unknowns for us, as well as many exciting changes that are coming. I know if we just trust in God's plan and leave ourselves open to His ideas, then many great things will happen, even if we don't understand-or even like-what it takes to get to them.

Keeping Christmas Simple

I love Christmas so very much-and my favorite part is getting gifts for everyone.

One thing I really want to make sure for this year is to keep everything simple. I don't want my kids opening truck loads of toys, nor do I want to be just buying little gifts for people just because-I want to make sure everything has meaning.

Quality over quantity is what I'm going for this year, and that means most of my gifts are coming from sites that benefit charities. I'm very excited about that.

But does anyone have any advice on how to get the kids on board to scale back the presents? To help them understand that it is far better to give than to receive? I was thinking about signing us up to hand out food at the local food shelter, but I'm not sure the kids will "get it".

I'm going to take the kids with me when we buy gifts for the angel tree at church, and hopefully they will not have meltdowns over buying toys for other kids without getting. I'm pretty confident they will be able to do well, but kids live to surprise their parents, so we will see.

What do you all think? Any ideas you have in your family for teaching compassion and sharing to your kids? Are there any traditions you have for keeping gift giving simple, budget friendly, and charitable?

I hope that in a few years, I can have quite a few wonderful traditions in place.